$100 in 1946 is worth $923 in 2002,
because prices increased 822.6% over that period, an average of
4.05% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$923
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
822.6%
Average inflation rate
4.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$923
Price difference ($100 base)
$823
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1946 → 2002
$923
$100 in 2002 → 1946
$10.84
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2002
Between 1946 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 822.6%, which works out to an average of
4.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2002: the 1946 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 56 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1946 amount converts to 2002 at the same ratio, 9.23: $1,000 becomes
$9,226, and $10,000 becomes $92,256.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2002
$1.00
$9.23
$5.00
$46.13
$10.00
$92.26
$20.00
$185
$50.00
$461
$100
$923
$500
$4,613
$1,000
$9,226
$5,000
$46,128
$10,000
$92,256
$100,000
$922,564
$1,000,000
$9,225,641
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2002
Between 1946 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 2184.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 260.5%, against 822.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.05%
$923
Medical care
5.75%
$2,285
Transportation
4.03%
$916
Food
3.98%
$890
Apparel
2.32%
$360
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1946: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1946 to 2002
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–2002 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1946, at end
1946–1950
5.44%
23.6%
$124
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$152
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$199
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$423
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$670
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$883
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$923
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $253 by
1974, on its way to $923 in 2002; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $923; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2002: $100 is worth $923 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2002/