$100 in 1947 is worth $108 in 1948,
because prices increased 8.1% over that period, an average of
8.07% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$108
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.1%
Average inflation rate
8.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$108
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.07
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1947 → 1948
$108
$100 in 1948 → 1947
$92.53
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1948
Between 1947 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.1%, which works out to an average of
8.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1948: the 1947 dollar
lost 7.5% of its purchasing power over
these 1 years.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1947 amount converts to 1948 at the same ratio, 1.08: $1,000 becomes
$1,081, and $10,000 becomes $10,807.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.08
$5.00
$5.40
$10.00
$10.81
$20.00
$21.61
$50.00
$54.04
$100
$108
$500
$540
$1,000
$1,081
$5,000
$5,404
$10,000
$10,807
$100,000
$108,072
$1,000,000
$1,080,717
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1948
Between 1947 and 1948, transportation rose the most, up 11.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 6.5%, against 8.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.07%
$108
Transportation
11.35%
$111
Food
8.30%
$108
Medical care
6.67%
$107
Apparel
6.52%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1947: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947grew to $108 by 1948; each row
shows the CPI, that year's inflation rate, and the running value.
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $108; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1948: $100 is worth $108 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1948/