$100 in 1947 is worth $255 in 1976,
because prices increased 155.2% over that period, an average of
3.28% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$255
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
155.2%
Average inflation rate
3.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$255
Price difference ($100 base)
$155
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1947 → 1976
$255
$100 in 1976 → 1947
$39.19
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1976
Between 1947 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 155.2%, which works out to an average of
3.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1976: the 1947 dollar
lost 60.8% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1976 at the same ratio, 2.55: $1,000 becomes
$2,552, and $10,000 becomes $25,516.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1976
$1.00
$2.55
$5.00
$12.76
$10.00
$25.52
$20.00
$51.03
$50.00
$128
$100
$255
$500
$1,276
$1,000
$2,552
$5,000
$12,758
$10,000
$25,516
$100,000
$255,157
$1,000,000
$2,551,570
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1976
Between 1947 and 1976, medical care rose the most, up 285.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 88.5%, against 155.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.28%
$255
Medical care
4.76%
$385
Transportation
3.84%
$298
Food
3.29%
$256
Apparel
2.21%
$188
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 1976
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.59% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$255
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $134 by
1961, on its way to $255 in 1976; 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 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $255; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1976: $100 is worth $255 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1976/