$100 in 1947 is worth $530 in 1988,
because prices increased 430.5% over that period, an average of
4.15% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$530
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
430.5%
Average inflation rate
4.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$530
Price difference ($100 base)
$430
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1947 → 1988
$530
$100 in 1988 → 1947
$18.85
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1988
Between 1947 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 430.5%, which works out to an average of
4.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1988: the 1947 dollar
lost 81.1% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1988 at the same ratio, 5.30: $1,000 becomes
$5,305, and $10,000 becomes $53,049.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1988
$1.00
$5.30
$5.00
$26.52
$10.00
$53.05
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$265
$100
$530
$500
$2,652
$1,000
$5,305
$5,000
$26,525
$10,000
$53,049
$100,000
$530,493
$1,000,000
$5,304,933
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1988
Between 1947 and 1988, medical care rose the most, up 926.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 189.2%, against 430.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.15%
$530
Medical care
5.84%
$1,027
Transportation
4.41%
$588
Food
3.95%
$490
Apparel
2.62%
$289
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 1988
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 1947–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$530
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $150 by
1967, on its way to $530 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $530; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1988: $100 is worth $530 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1988/