$100 in 1946 is worth $1,215 in 2015,
because prices increased 1115.5% over that period, an average of
3.69% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,215
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1115.5%
Average inflation rate
3.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,215
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,115
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1946 → 2015
$1,215
$100 in 2015 → 1946
$8.23
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2015
Between 1946 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1115.5%, which works out to an average of
3.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2015: the 1946 dollar
lost 91.8% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2015 at the same ratio, 12.15: $1,000 becomes
$12,155, and $10,000 becomes $121,547.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2015
$1.00
$12.15
$5.00
$60.77
$10.00
$122
$20.00
$243
$50.00
$608
$100
$1,215
$500
$6,077
$1,000
$12,155
$5,000
$60,774
$10,000
$121,547
$100,000
$1,215,472
$1,000,000
$12,154,718
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2015
Between 1946 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 3474.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 266.0%, against 1115.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.69%
$1,215
Medical care
5.32%
$3,574
Food
3.73%
$1,249
Transportation
3.66%
$1,192
Apparel
1.90%
$366
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 2015
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.68% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,215
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $466 by
1981, on its way to $1,215 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,215; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,215 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2015/