$100 in 1947 is worth $629 in 1992,
because prices increased 529.1% over that period, an average of
4.17% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$629
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
529.1%
Average inflation rate
4.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$629
Price difference ($100 base)
$529
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1947 → 1992
$629
$100 in 1992 → 1947
$15.89
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1992
Between 1947 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 529.1%, which works out to an average of
4.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1992: the 1947 dollar
lost 84.1% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1992 at the same ratio, 6.29: $1,000 becomes
$6,291, and $10,000 becomes $62,915.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1992
$1.00
$6.29
$5.00
$31.46
$10.00
$62.91
$20.00
$126
$50.00
$315
$100
$629
$500
$3,146
$1,000
$6,291
$5,000
$31,457
$10,000
$62,915
$100,000
$629,148
$1,000,000
$6,291,480
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1992
Between 1947 and 1992, medical care rose the most, up 1308.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 230.6%, against 529.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.17%
$629
Medical care
6.05%
$1,408
Transportation
4.36%
$684
Food
3.95%
$572
Apparel
2.69%
$331
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 1992
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 1947–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$629
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $165 by
1969, on its way to $629 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $629; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1992: $100 is worth $629 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1992/