$100 in 1947 is worth $772 in 2000,
because prices increased 672.2% over that period, an average of
3.93% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$772
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
672.2%
Average inflation rate
3.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$772
Price difference ($100 base)
$672
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1947 → 2000
$772
$100 in 2000 → 1947
$12.95
What happened to prices between 1947 and 2000
Between 1947 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 672.2%, which works out to an average of
3.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2000: the 1947 dollar
lost 87.0% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2000 at the same ratio, 7.72: $1,000 becomes
$7,722, and $10,000 becomes $77,220.
Amount in 1947
Value in 2000
$1.00
$7.72
$5.00
$38.61
$10.00
$77.22
$20.00
$154
$50.00
$386
$100
$772
$500
$3,861
$1,000
$7,722
$5,000
$38,610
$10,000
$77,220
$100,000
$772,197
$1,000,000
$7,721,973
Inflation by spending category, 1947–2000
Between 1947 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 1831.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 224.8%, against 672.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.93%
$772
Medical care
5.75%
$1,932
Transportation
4.07%
$829
Food
3.73%
$696
Apparel
2.25%
$325
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 2000
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 1947–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$772
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $199 by
1973, on its way to $772 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $772; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 2000: $100 is worth $772 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2000/