$100 in 1946 is worth $1,177 in 2012,
because prices increased 1077.4% over that period, an average of
3.81% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,177
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1077.4%
Average inflation rate
3.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,177
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,077
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1946 → 2012
$1,177
$100 in 2012 → 1946
$8.49
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2012
Between 1946 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1077.4%, which works out to an average of
3.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2012: the 1946 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 2012 at the same ratio, 11.77: $1,000 becomes
$11,774, and $10,000 becomes $117,741.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2012
$1.00
$11.77
$5.00
$58.87
$10.00
$118
$20.00
$235
$50.00
$589
$100
$1,177
$500
$5,887
$1,000
$11,774
$5,000
$58,870
$10,000
$117,741
$100,000
$1,177,405
$1,000,000
$11,774,051
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2012
Between 1946 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 3219.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 267.0%, against 1077.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.81%
$1,177
Medical care
5.45%
$3,319
Transportation
3.96%
$1,301
Food
3.81%
$1,181
Apparel
1.99%
$367
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 2012
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 1946–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,177
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $466 by
1981, on its way to $1,177 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,177; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,177 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2012/