$100 in 1947 is worth $965 in 2008,
because prices increased 865.5% over that period, an average of
3.79% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$965
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
865.5%
Average inflation rate
3.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$965
Price difference ($100 base)
$865
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1947 → 2008
$965
$100 in 2008 → 1947
$10.36
What happened to prices between 1947 and 2008
Between 1947 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 865.5%, which works out to an average of
3.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2008: the 1947 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 2008 at the same ratio, 9.65: $1,000 becomes
$9,655, and $10,000 becomes $96,548.
Amount in 1947
Value in 2008
$1.00
$9.65
$5.00
$48.27
$10.00
$96.55
$20.00
$193
$50.00
$483
$100
$965
$500
$4,827
$1,000
$9,655
$5,000
$48,274
$10,000
$96,548
$100,000
$965,484
$1,000,000
$9,654,843
Inflation by spending category, 1947–2008
Between 1947 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 2596.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 198.0%, against 865.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.79%
$965
Medical care
5.55%
$2,697
Transportation
3.94%
$1,057
Food
3.65%
$888
Apparel
1.81%
$298
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 2008
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 1947–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$965
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $272 by
1977, on its way to $965 in 2008; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $965; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 2008: $100 is worth $965 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2008/