$100 in 1946 is worth $1,118 in 2010,
because prices increased 1018.2% over that period, an average of
3.84% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,118
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1018.2%
Average inflation rate
3.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,118
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,018
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1946 → 2010
$1,118
$100 in 2010 → 1946
$8.94
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2010
Between 1946 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1018.2%, which works out to an average of
3.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2010: the 1946 dollar
lost 91.1% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2010 at the same ratio, 11.18: $1,000 becomes
$11,182, and $10,000 becomes $111,824.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2010
$1.00
$11.18
$5.00
$55.91
$10.00
$112
$20.00
$224
$50.00
$559
$100
$1,118
$500
$5,591
$1,000
$11,182
$5,000
$55,912
$10,000
$111,824
$100,000
$1,118,236
$1,000,000
$11,182,359
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2010
Between 1946 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 3007.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 247.4%, against 1018.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.84%
$1,118
Medical care
5.52%
$3,107
Transportation
3.90%
$1,158
Food
3.83%
$1,109
Apparel
1.96%
$347
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 2010
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 1946–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,118
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $292 by
1976, on its way to $1,118 in 2010; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,118; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,118 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2010/