$100 in 1947 is worth $683 in 1995,
because prices increased 583.4% over that period, an average of
4.09% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$683
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
583.4%
Average inflation rate
4.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$683
Price difference ($100 base)
$583
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1947 → 1995
$683
$100 in 1995 → 1947
$14.63
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1995
Between 1947 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 583.4%, which works out to an average of
4.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1995: the 1947 dollar
lost 85.4% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1995 at the same ratio, 6.83: $1,000 becomes
$6,834, and $10,000 becomes $68,341.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1995
$1.00
$6.83
$5.00
$34.17
$10.00
$68.34
$20.00
$137
$50.00
$342
$100
$683
$500
$3,417
$1,000
$6,834
$5,000
$34,170
$10,000
$68,341
$100,000
$683,408
$1,000,000
$6,834,081
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1995
Between 1947 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1533.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 230.8%, against 583.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.09%
$683
Medical care
5.99%
$1,633
Transportation
4.29%
$752
Food
3.86%
$616
Apparel
2.52%
$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 1995
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 1947–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$683
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $182 by
1971, on its way to $683 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $683; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1995: $100 is worth $683 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1995/