$100 in 1947 is worth $130 in 1958,
because prices increased 29.6% over that period, an average of
2.38% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$130
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
29.6%
Average inflation rate
2.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$130
Price difference ($100 base)
$29.60
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1947 → 1958
$130
$100 in 1958 → 1947
$77.16
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1958
Between 1947 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 29.6%, which works out to an average of
2.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1958: the 1947 dollar
lost 22.8% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.30: $1,000 becomes
$1,296, and $10,000 becomes $12,960.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.30
$5.00
$6.48
$10.00
$12.96
$20.00
$25.92
$50.00
$64.80
$100
$130
$500
$648
$1,000
$1,296
$5,000
$6,480
$10,000
$12,960
$100,000
$129,596
$1,000,000
$1,295,964
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1958
Between 1947 and 1958, transportation rose the most, up 54.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.8%, against 29.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.38%
$130
Transportation
4.04%
$155
Medical care
3.92%
$153
Food
2.07%
$125
Apparel
1.02%
$112
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 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 2.62% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.30% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1947, at end
1947–1950
2.62%
8.1%
$108
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$130
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $119 by
1952, on its way to $130 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $130; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1958: $100 is worth $130 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1958/