$100 in 1947 is worth $794 in 2001,
because prices increased 694.2% over that period, an average of
3.91% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$794
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
694.2%
Average inflation rate
3.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$794
Price difference ($100 base)
$694
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1947 → 2001
$794
$100 in 2001 → 1947
$12.59
What happened to prices between 1947 and 2001
Between 1947 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 694.2%, which works out to an average of
3.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2001: the 1947 dollar
lost 87.4% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2001 at the same ratio, 7.94: $1,000 becomes
$7,942, and $10,000 becomes $79,417.
Amount in 1947
Value in 2001
$1.00
$7.94
$5.00
$39.71
$10.00
$79.42
$20.00
$159
$50.00
$397
$100
$794
$500
$3,971
$1,000
$7,942
$5,000
$39,709
$10,000
$79,417
$100,000
$794,170
$1,000,000
$7,941,704
Inflation by spending category, 1947–2001
Between 1947 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1920.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 219.0%, against 694.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.91%
$794
Medical care
5.72%
$2,021
Transportation
4.01%
$834
Food
3.72%
$718
Apparel
2.17%
$319
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 2001
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 1947–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$794
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $199 by
1973, on its way to $794 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $794; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 2001: $100 is worth $794 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2001/