$100 in 1946 is worth $1,288 in 2018,
because prices increased 1187.7% over that period, an average of
3.61% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,288
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1187.7%
Average inflation rate
3.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,288
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,188
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1946 → 2018
$1,288
$100 in 2018 → 1946
$7.77
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2018
Between 1946 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1187.7%, which works out to an average of
3.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2018: the 1946 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2018 at the same ratio, 12.88: $1,000 becomes
$12,877, and $10,000 becomes $128,773.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2018
$1.00
$12.88
$5.00
$64.39
$10.00
$129
$20.00
$258
$50.00
$644
$100
$1,288
$500
$6,439
$1,000
$12,877
$5,000
$64,386
$10,000
$128,773
$100,000
$1,287,728
$1,000,000
$12,877,282
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2018
Between 1946 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 3777.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 265.3%, against 1187.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.61%
$1,288
Medical care
5.21%
$3,878
Food
3.61%
$1,281
Transportation
3.58%
$1,261
Apparel
1.82%
$365
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 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,288
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $466 by
1981, on its way to $1,288 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,288; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,288 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2018/