$100 in 1947 is worth $108 in 1950,
because prices increased 8.1% over that period, an average of
2.62% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$108
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.1%
Average inflation rate
2.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$108
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.07
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1947 → 1950
$108
$100 in 1950 → 1947
$92.53
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1950
Between 1947 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.1%, which works out to an average of
2.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1950: the 1947 dollar
lost 7.5% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.08: $1,000 becomes
$1,081, and $10,000 becomes $10,807.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1950
$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, 1947–1950
Between 1947 and 1950, transportation rose the most, up 22.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.0%, against 8.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.62%
$108
Transportation
7.06%
$123
Medical care
3.80%
$112
Food
1.77%
$105
Apparel
0.33%
$101
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 1947 had already become $108 by
1948, on its way to $108 in 1950; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 8.1% in 1948, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $108; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1950: $100 is worth $108 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1950/