$100 in 1948 is worth $111 in 1953,
because prices increased 10.8% over that period, an average of
2.07% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$111
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.8%
Average inflation rate
2.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$111
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.79
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1948 → 1953
$111
$100 in 1953 → 1948
$90.26
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1953
Between 1948 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.8%, which works out to an average of
2.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.90 buys in 1953: the 1948 dollar
lost 9.7% of its purchasing power over
these 5 years.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
Every 1948 amount converts to 1953 at the same ratio, 1.11: $1,000 becomes
$1,108, and $10,000 becomes $11,079.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.11
$5.00
$5.54
$10.00
$11.08
$20.00
$22.16
$50.00
$55.39
$100
$111
$500
$554
$1,000
$1,108
$5,000
$5,539
$10,000
$11,079
$100,000
$110,788
$1,000,000
$1,107,884
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1953
Between 1948 and 1953, transportation rose the most, up 28.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.4%, against 10.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.07%
$111
Transportation
5.17%
$129
Medical care
3.74%
$120
Food
1.63%
$108
Apparel
0.28%
$101
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1948: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1948 to 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 3.47% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1953 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$111
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $100 by
1950, on its way to $111 in 1953; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 7.9% in 1951, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $111; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1953: $100 is worth $111 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1953/