$100 in 1947 is worth $117 in 1951,
because prices increased 16.6% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$117
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
16.6%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$117
Price difference ($100 base)
$16.59
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1947 → 1951
$117
$100 in 1951 → 1947
$85.77
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1951
Between 1947 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 16.6%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1951: the 1947 dollar
lost 14.2% of its purchasing power over
these 4 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.17: $1,000 becomes
$1,166, and $10,000 becomes $11,659.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.17
$5.00
$5.83
$10.00
$11.66
$20.00
$23.32
$50.00
$58.30
$100
$117
$500
$583
$1,000
$1,166
$5,000
$5,830
$10,000
$11,659
$100,000
$116,592
$1,000,000
$1,165,919
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1951
Between 1947 and 1951, transportation rose the most, up 30.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 10.0%, against 16.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$117
Transportation
6.83%
$130
Medical care
4.18%
$118
Food
4.01%
$117
Apparel
2.42%
$110
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–).
Decade by decade: 1947 to 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (2.62% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–1951 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1947, at end
1947–1950
2.62%
8.1%
$108
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$117
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $107 by
1949, on its way to $117 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $117; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1951: $100 is worth $117 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1951/