$100 in 1948 is worth $117 in 1957,
because prices increased 16.6% over that period, an average of
1.72% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$117
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
16.6%
Average inflation rate
1.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$117
Price difference ($100 base)
$16.60
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1948 → 1957
$117
$100 in 1957 → 1948
$85.77
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1957
Between 1948 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 16.6%, which works out to an average of
1.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1957: the 1948 dollar
lost 14.2% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.17: $1,000 becomes
$1,166, and $10,000 becomes $11,660.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.17
$5.00
$5.83
$10.00
$11.66
$20.00
$23.32
$50.00
$58.30
$100
$117
$500
$583
$1,000
$1,166
$5,000
$5,830
$10,000
$11,660
$100,000
$116,598
$1,000,000
$1,165,975
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1957
Between 1948 and 1957, medical care rose the most, up 36.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 4.7%, against 16.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.72%
$117
Medical care
3.54%
$137
Transportation
3.35%
$134
Food
1.14%
$111
Apparel
0.51%
$105
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 1957
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.22% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1957 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$117
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $110 by
1952, on its way to $117 in 1957; 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 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $117; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1957: $100 is worth $117 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1957/