$100 in 1947 is worth $408 in 1981,
because prices increased 307.6% over that period, an average of
4.22% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$408
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
307.6%
Average inflation rate
4.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$408
Price difference ($100 base)
$308
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1947 → 1981
$408
$100 in 1981 → 1947
$24.53
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1981
Between 1947 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 307.6%, which works out to an average of
4.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1981: the 1947 dollar
lost 75.5% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1981 at the same ratio, 4.08: $1,000 becomes
$4,076, and $10,000 becomes $40,762.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1981
$1.00
$4.08
$5.00
$20.38
$10.00
$40.76
$20.00
$81.52
$50.00
$204
$100
$408
$500
$2,038
$1,000
$4,076
$5,000
$20,381
$10,000
$40,762
$100,000
$407,623
$1,000,000
$4,076,233
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1981
Between 1947 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 514.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 138.8%, against 307.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.22%
$408
Medical care
5.48%
$614
Transportation
4.87%
$504
Food
4.07%
$388
Apparel
2.59%
$239
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$370
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$408
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $137 by
1963, on its way to $408 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $408; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1981: $100 is worth $408 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1981/