$100 in 1946 is worth $1,311 in 2019,
because prices increased 1211.1% over that period, an average of
3.59% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,311
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1211.1%
Average inflation rate
3.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,311
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,211
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1946 → 2019
$1,311
$100 in 2019 → 1946
$7.63
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2019
Between 1946 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1211.1%, which works out to an average of
3.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2019: the 1946 dollar
lost 92.4% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 2019 at the same ratio, 13.11: $1,000 becomes
$13,111, and $10,000 becomes $131,106.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2019
$1.00
$13.11
$5.00
$65.55
$10.00
$131
$20.00
$262
$50.00
$656
$100
$1,311
$500
$6,555
$1,000
$13,111
$5,000
$65,553
$10,000
$131,106
$100,000
$1,311,062
$1,000,000
$13,110,615
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2019
Between 1946 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 3887.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 260.6%, against 1211.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.59%
$1,311
Medical care
5.18%
$3,987
Food
3.58%
$1,305
Transportation
3.53%
$1,258
Apparel
1.77%
$361
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 2019
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 1946–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,311
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $466 by
1981, on its way to $1,311 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,311; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,311 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2019/