$100 in 1947 is worth $1,146 in 2019,
because prices increased 1046.4% over that period, an average of
3.45% a year.
$100 in 1947 has
the same buying power as
$1,146
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1046.4%
Average inflation rate
3.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,146
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,046
CPI in 1947
22.3
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1947 → 2019
$1,146
$100 in 2019 → 1947
$8.72
What happened to prices between 1947 and 2019
Between 1947 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 22.3 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1046.4%, which works out to an average of
3.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1947 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2019: the 1947 dollar
lost 91.3% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 2019 at the same ratio, 11.46: $1,000 becomes
$11,464, and $10,000 becomes $114,644.
Amount in 1947
Value in 2019
$1.00
$11.46
$5.00
$57.32
$10.00
$115
$20.00
$229
$50.00
$573
$100
$1,146
$500
$5,732
$1,000
$11,464
$5,000
$57,322
$10,000
$114,644
$100,000
$1,146,444
$1,000,000
$11,464,439
Inflation by spending category, 1947–2019
Between 1947 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 3591.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 210.9%, against 1046.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1947
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1947 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.45%
$1,146
Medical care
5.14%
$3,692
Transportation
3.43%
$1,136
Food
3.35%
$1,072
Apparel
1.59%
$311
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 2019
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 2010s (1.78% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1947–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,146
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1947
$100 from 1947 had already become $433 by
1982, on its way to $1,146 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1947 had the buying
power of $1,146; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1947 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,146 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1947 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1947-to-2019/