$100 in 1947 is worth $491 in 1986,
because prices increased 391.5% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$491
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
391.5%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$491
Price difference ($100 base)
$391
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1947 → 1986
$491
$100 in 1986 → 1947
$20.35
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1986
Between 1947 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 391.5%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1986: the 1947 dollar
lost 79.7% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1986 at the same ratio, 4.91: $1,000 becomes
$4,915, and $10,000 becomes $49,148.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1986
$1.00
$4.91
$5.00
$24.57
$10.00
$49.15
$20.00
$98.30
$50.00
$246
$100
$491
$500
$2,457
$1,000
$4,915
$5,000
$24,574
$10,000
$49,148
$100,000
$491,480
$1,000,000
$4,914,798
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1986
Between 1947 and 1986, medical care rose the most, up 803.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 165.4%, against 391.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$491
Medical care
5.81%
$904
Transportation
4.48%
$553
Food
3.95%
$452
Apparel
2.53%
$265
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 1986
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1950s (2.08% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$491
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $150 by
1967, on its way to $491 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $491; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1986: $100 is worth $491 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1986/