$100 in 1947 is worth $1,045 in 2013,
because prices increased 944.7% over that period, an average of
3.62% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$1,045
in 2013
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
944.7%
Average inflation rate
3.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,045
Price difference ($100 base)
$945
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 2013
232.957
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 2013
1.46%
$100 in 1947 → 2013
$1,045
$100 in 2013 → 1947
$9.57
What happened to prices between 1947 and 2013
Between 1947 and 2013, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 232.957.
Cumulatively, prices increased 944.7%, which works out to an average of
3.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2013: the 1947 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 2013 at the same ratio, 10.45: $1,000 becomes
$10,447, and $10,000 becomes $104,465.
Amount in 1947
Value in 2013
$1.00
$10.45
$5.00
$52.23
$10.00
$104
$20.00
$209
$50.00
$522
$100
$1,045
$500
$5,223
$1,000
$10,447
$5,000
$52,233
$10,000
$104,465
$100,000
$1,044,650
$1,000,000
$10,446,502
Inflation by spending category, 1947–2013
Between 1947 and 2013, medical care rose the most, up 3049.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 219.3%, against 944.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 2013, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.62%
$1,045
Medical care
5.37%
$3,149
Transportation
3.80%
$1,175
Food
3.52%
$984
Apparel
1.77%
$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 2013
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 1947–2013 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$978
2010–2013
2.23%
6.8%
$1,045
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $433 by
1982, on its way to $1,045 in 2013; 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: 2013
In 2013, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $1,045; the year's average CPI of 232.957 is the level
behind every 2013 figure on this page.
2013 was a low-inflation year with a lot of noise around the Federal Reserve.
Consumer prices rose 1.5%, below the Fed’s 2% target, and gasoline eased to an
average of $3.51 a gallon. Housing was the exception: the median new home sold
for about $268,900, up sharply from $245,200 in 2012, as the market recovered
from its post-crisis bottom.
The Fed dominated the news. Chairman Ben Bernanke’s May comments about slowing
bond purchases pushed long-term interest rates up by roughly a percentage
point that summer, and mortgages became more expensive within weeks. In
December the Fed finally announced a first small cut to its purchases while
promising to keep short-term rates near zero for a long time.
Washington added its own disruption. A 16-day government shutdown in October
delayed data releases and left a hole in that month’s CPI collection. Median
household income was reported at $53,585, the federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp cost 46 cents. The decade’s pattern was taking
shape: slow price growth, ultra-low interest rates, and a labor market that
improved gradually.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 2013: $100 is worth $1,045 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2013/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 2013. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2013/