$100 in 1947 is worth $1,076 in 2016,
because prices increased 976.3% over that period, an average of
3.50% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$1,076
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
976.3%
Average inflation rate
3.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,076
Price difference ($100 base)
$976
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1947 → 2016
$1,076
$100 in 2016 → 1947
$9.29
What happened to prices between 1947 and 2016
Between 1947 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 976.3%, which works out to an average of
3.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2016: the 1947 dollar
lost 90.7% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2016 at the same ratio, 10.76: $1,000 becomes
$10,763, and $10,000 becomes $107,626.
Amount in 1947
Value in 2016
$1.00
$10.76
$5.00
$53.81
$10.00
$108
$20.00
$215
$50.00
$538
$100
$1,076
$500
$5,381
$1,000
$10,763
$5,000
$53,813
$10,000
$107,626
$100,000
$1,076,265
$1,000,000
$10,762,646
Inflation by spending category, 1947–2016
Between 1947 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 3334.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 215.9%, against 976.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.50%
$1,076
Medical care
5.26%
$3,435
Transportation
3.47%
$1,053
Food
3.44%
$1,029
Apparel
1.68%
$316
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 2016
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.61% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,076
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $433 by
1982, on its way to $1,076 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $1,076; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,076 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2016/