$100 in 1946 is worth $944 in 2003,
because prices increased 843.6% over that period, an average of
4.02% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$944
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
843.6%
Average inflation rate
4.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$944
Price difference ($100 base)
$844
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1946 → 2003
$944
$100 in 2003 → 1946
$10.60
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2003
Between 1946 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 843.6%, which works out to an average of
4.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2003: the 1946 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 2003 at the same ratio, 9.44: $1,000 becomes
$9,436, and $10,000 becomes $94,359.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2003
$1.00
$9.44
$5.00
$47.18
$10.00
$94.36
$20.00
$189
$50.00
$472
$100
$944
$500
$4,718
$1,000
$9,436
$5,000
$47,179
$10,000
$94,359
$100,000
$943,590
$1,000,000
$9,435,897
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2003
Between 1946 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 2276.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 251.5%, against 843.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.02%
$944
Medical care
5.72%
$2,377
Transportation
4.02%
$944
Food
3.95%
$909
Apparel
2.23%
$351
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 2003
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 1946–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$944
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $253 by
1974, on its way to $944 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $944; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2003: $100 is worth $944 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2003/