$100 in 1947 is worth $731 in 1998,
because prices increased 630.9% over that period, an average of
3.98% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$731
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
630.9%
Average inflation rate
3.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$731
Price difference ($100 base)
$631
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1947 → 1998
$731
$100 in 1998 → 1947
$13.68
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1998
Between 1947 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 630.9%, which works out to an average of
3.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1998: the 1947 dollar
lost 86.3% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1998 at the same ratio, 7.31: $1,000 becomes
$7,309, and $10,000 becomes $73,094.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1998
$1.00
$7.31
$5.00
$36.55
$10.00
$73.09
$20.00
$146
$50.00
$365
$100
$731
$500
$3,655
$1,000
$7,309
$5,000
$36,547
$10,000
$73,094
$100,000
$730,942
$1,000,000
$7,309,417
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1998
Between 1947 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1693.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 233.3%, against 630.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.98%
$731
Medical care
5.82%
$1,793
Transportation
4.07%
$765
Food
3.79%
$667
Apparel
2.39%
$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 1998
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 1947–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$731
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $199 by
1973, on its way to $731 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $731; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1998: $100 is worth $731 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1998/