$100 in 1947 is worth $509 in 1987,
because prices increased 409.4% over that period, an average of
4.15% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$509
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
409.4%
Average inflation rate
4.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$509
Price difference ($100 base)
$409
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1947 → 1987
$509
$100 in 1987 → 1947
$19.63
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1987
Between 1947 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 409.4%, which works out to an average of
4.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1987: the 1947 dollar
lost 80.4% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1987 at the same ratio, 5.09: $1,000 becomes
$5,094, and $10,000 becomes $50,942.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1987
$1.00
$5.09
$5.00
$25.47
$10.00
$50.94
$20.00
$102
$50.00
$255
$100
$509
$500
$2,547
$1,000
$5,094
$5,000
$25,471
$10,000
$50,942
$100,000
$509,417
$1,000,000
$5,094,170
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1987
Between 1947 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 863.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.2%, against 409.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.15%
$509
Medical care
5.83%
$964
Transportation
4.45%
$570
Food
3.95%
$471
Apparel
2.58%
$277
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 1987
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 1947–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$509
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $150 by
1967, on its way to $509 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $509; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1987: $100 is worth $509 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1987/