$100 in 1947 is worth $611 in 1991,
because prices increased 510.8% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$611
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
510.8%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$611
Price difference ($100 base)
$511
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1947 → 1991
$611
$100 in 1991 → 1947
$16.37
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1991
Between 1947 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 510.8%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1991: the 1947 dollar
lost 83.6% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1991 at the same ratio, 6.11: $1,000 becomes
$6,108, and $10,000 becomes $61,076.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1991
$1.00
$6.11
$5.00
$30.54
$10.00
$61.08
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$305
$100
$611
$500
$3,054
$1,000
$6,108
$5,000
$30,538
$10,000
$61,076
$100,000
$610,762
$1,000,000
$6,107,623
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1991
Between 1947 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1211.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 222.6%, against 510.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$611
Medical care
6.02%
$1,311
Transportation
4.41%
$669
Food
4.02%
$566
Apparel
2.70%
$323
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 1991
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 1947–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$611
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $165 by
1969, on its way to $611 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $611; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1991: $100 is worth $611 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1991/