$100 in 1946 is worth $1,231 in 2016,
because prices increased 1130.8% over that period, an average of
3.65% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,231
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1130.8%
Average inflation rate
3.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,231
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,131
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1946 → 2016
$1,231
$100 in 2016 → 1946
$8.12
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2016
Between 1946 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1130.8%, which works out to an average of
3.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2016: the 1946 dollar
lost 91.9% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2016 at the same ratio, 12.31: $1,000 becomes
$12,308, and $10,000 becomes $123,081.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2016
$1.00
$12.31
$5.00
$61.54
$10.00
$123
$20.00
$246
$50.00
$615
$100
$1,231
$500
$6,154
$1,000
$12,308
$5,000
$61,540
$10,000
$123,081
$100,000
$1,230,805
$1,000,000
$12,308,051
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2016
Between 1946 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 3609.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 266.4%, against 1130.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.65%
$1,231
Medical care
5.30%
$3,709
Food
3.68%
$1,252
Transportation
3.57%
$1,167
Apparel
1.87%
$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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,231
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $466 by
1981, on its way to $1,231 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,231; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,231 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2016/