$100 in 1947 is worth $221 in 1974,
because prices increased 121.1% over that period, an average of
2.98% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$221
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
121.1%
Average inflation rate
2.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$221
Price difference ($100 base)
$121
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1947 → 1974
$221
$100 in 1974 → 1947
$45.23
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1974
Between 1947 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 121.1%, which works out to an average of
2.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1974: the 1947 dollar
lost 54.8% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1974 at the same ratio, 2.21: $1,000 becomes
$2,211, and $10,000 becomes $22,108.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1974
$1.00
$2.21
$5.00
$11.05
$10.00
$22.11
$20.00
$44.22
$50.00
$111
$100
$221
$500
$1,105
$1,000
$2,211
$5,000
$11,054
$10,000
$22,108
$100,000
$221,076
$1,000,000
$2,210,762
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1974
Between 1947 and 1974, medical care rose the most, up 214.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.9%, against 121.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.98%
$221
Medical care
4.33%
$314
Transportation
3.41%
$248
Food
3.11%
$229
Apparel
2.07%
$174
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 1974
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.17% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–1974 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1947, at end
1947–1950
2.62%
8.1%
$108
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$133
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$174
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$221
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $133 by
1960, on its way to $221 in 1974; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.0% in 1974, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $221; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1974: $100 is worth $221 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1974/