$100 in 1947 is worth $121 in 1954,
because prices increased 20.6% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.6%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.63
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1947 → 1954
$121
$100 in 1954 → 1947
$82.90
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1954
Between 1947 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.6%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1954: the 1947 dollar
lost 17.1% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,206, and $10,000 becomes $12,063.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.03
$10.00
$12.06
$20.00
$24.13
$50.00
$60.31
$100
$121
$500
$603
$1,000
$1,206
$5,000
$6,031
$10,000
$12,063
$100,000
$120,628
$1,000,000
$1,206,278
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1954
Between 1947 and 1954, transportation rose the most, up 41.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 8.0%, against 20.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$121
Transportation
5.04%
$141
Medical care
4.03%
$132
Food
2.27%
$117
Apparel
1.11%
$108
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 1954
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.79% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (2.62% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–1954 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1947, at end
1947–1950
2.62%
8.1%
$108
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $108 by
1950, on its way to $121 in 1954; 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 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $121; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1954: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1954/