$100 in 1946 is worth $1,563 in 2023,
because prices increased 1462.6% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1946 has
the same buying power as
$1,563
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1462.6%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,563
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,463
CPI in 1946
19.5
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1946 → 2023
$1,563
$100 in 2023 → 1946
$6.40
What happened to prices between 1946 and 2023
Between 1946 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 19.5 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1462.6%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1946 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2023: the 1946 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2023 at the same ratio, 15.63: $1,000 becomes
$15,626, and $10,000 becomes $156,257.
Amount in 1946
Value in 2023
$1.00
$15.63
$5.00
$78.13
$10.00
$156
$20.00
$313
$50.00
$781
$100
$1,563
$500
$7,813
$1,000
$15,626
$5,000
$78,129
$10,000
$156,257
$100,000
$1,562,574
$1,000,000
$15,625,744
Inflation by spending category, 1946–2023
Between 1946 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 4292.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 279.6%, against 1462.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1946
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1946 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$1,563
Medical care
5.04%
$4,393
Food
3.69%
$1,631
Transportation
3.67%
$1,599
Apparel
1.75%
$380
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 2023
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.73% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1946–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,327
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,563
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1946
$100 from 1946 had already become $562 by
1986, on its way to $1,563 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1946 had the buying
power of $1,563; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1946 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,563 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1946 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1946-to-2023/