$100 in 1947 is worth $747 in 1999,
because prices increased 647.1% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$747
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
647.1%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$747
Price difference ($100 base)
$647
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1947 → 1999
$747
$100 in 1999 → 1947
$13.39
What happened to prices between 1947 and 1999
Between 1947 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 647.1%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1999: the 1947 dollar
lost 86.6% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1999 at the same ratio, 7.47: $1,000 becomes
$7,471, and $10,000 becomes $74,709.
Amount in 1947
Value in 1999
$1.00
$7.47
$5.00
$37.35
$10.00
$74.71
$20.00
$149
$50.00
$374
$100
$747
$500
$3,735
$1,000
$7,471
$5,000
$37,354
$10,000
$74,709
$100,000
$747,085
$1,000,000
$7,470,852
Inflation by spending category, 1947–1999
Between 1947 and 1999, medical care rose the most, up 1756.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 229.1%, against 647.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$747
Medical care
5.78%
$1,856
Transportation
4.03%
$781
Food
3.76%
$681
Apparel
2.32%
$329
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 1999
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 1947–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$747
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $199 by
1973, on its way to $747 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $747; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 1999: $100 is worth $747 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-1999/