$100 in 1947 is worth $586 in 1990,
because prices increased 486.1% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$586
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
486.1%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$586
Price difference ($100 base)
$486
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1947 → 1990
$586
$100 in 1990 → 1947
$17.06
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1990
Between 1947 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 486.1%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1990: the 1947 dollar
lost 82.9% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1990 at the same ratio, 5.86: $1,000 becomes
$5,861, and $10,000 becomes $58,610.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1990
$1.00
$5.86
$5.00
$29.30
$10.00
$58.61
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$293
$100
$586
$500
$2,930
$1,000
$5,861
$5,000
$29,305
$10,000
$58,610
$100,000
$586,099
$1,000,000
$5,860,987
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1990
Between 1947 and 1990, medical care rose the most, up 1105.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 211.0%, against 486.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$586
Medical care
5.96%
$1,206
Transportation
4.45%
$651
Food
4.04%
$549
Apparel
2.67%
$311
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 1990
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 1947–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$586
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $165 by
1969, on its way to $586 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $586; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1990: $100 is worth $586 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1990/