$100 in 1947 is worth $720 in 1997,
because prices increased 619.7% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$720
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
619.7%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$720
Price difference ($100 base)
$620
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1947 → 1997
$720
$100 in 1997 → 1947
$13.89
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1997
Between 1947 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 619.7%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1997: the 1947 dollar
lost 86.1% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1997 at the same ratio, 7.20: $1,000 becomes
$7,197, and $10,000 becomes $71,973.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1997
$1.00
$7.20
$5.00
$35.99
$10.00
$71.97
$20.00
$144
$50.00
$360
$100
$720
$500
$3,599
$1,000
$7,197
$5,000
$35,987
$10,000
$71,973
$100,000
$719,731
$1,000,000
$7,197,309
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1997
Between 1947 and 1997, medical care rose the most, up 1637.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 233.1%, against 619.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$720
Medical care
5.88%
$1,738
Transportation
4.19%
$780
Food
3.82%
$653
Apparel
2.44%
$333
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 1997
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 1947–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$720
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $182 by
1971, on its way to $720 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $720; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1997: $100 is worth $720 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1997/