$100 in 1946 is worth $1,214 in 2014,
because prices increased 1114.0% over that period, an average of
3.74% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,214
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1114.0%
Average inflation rate
3.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,214
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,114
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1946 → 2014
$1,214
$100 in 2014 → 1946
$8.24
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2014
Between 1946 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1114.0%, which works out to an average of
3.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2014: the 1946 dollar
lost 91.8% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 2014 at the same ratio, 12.14: $1,000 becomes
$12,140, and $10,000 becomes $121,403.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2014
$1.00
$12.14
$5.00
$60.70
$10.00
$121
$20.00
$243
$50.00
$607
$100
$1,214
$500
$6,070
$1,000
$12,140
$5,000
$60,702
$10,000
$121,403
$100,000
$1,214,031
$1,000,000
$12,140,308
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2014
Between 1946 and 2014, medical care rose the most, up 3382.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 270.7%, against 1114.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.74%
$1,214
Medical care
5.36%
$3,482
Transportation
3.84%
$1,293
Food
3.75%
$1,226
Apparel
1.95%
$371
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 2014
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,214
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $466 by
1981, on its way to $1,214 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,214; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,214 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2014/