$100 in 1948 is worth $120 in 1958,
because prices increased 19.9% over that period, an average of
1.83% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$120
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.9%
Average inflation rate
1.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$120
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.92
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1948 → 1958
$120
$100 in 1958 → 1948
$83.39
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1958
Between 1948 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.9%, which works out to an average of
1.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1958: the 1948 dollar
lost 16.6% of its purchasing power over
these 10 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.20: $1,000 becomes
$1,199, and $10,000 becomes $11,992.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.20
$5.00
$6.00
$10.00
$11.99
$20.00
$23.98
$50.00
$59.96
$100
$120
$500
$600
$1,000
$1,199
$5,000
$5,996
$10,000
$11,992
$100,000
$119,917
$1,000,000
$1,199,170
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1958
Between 1948 and 1958, medical care rose the most, up 43.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 4.9%, against 19.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.83%
$120
Medical care
3.65%
$143
Transportation
3.34%
$139
Food
1.47%
$116
Apparel
0.48%
$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 1958
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.30% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1958 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$120
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $111 by
1953, on its way to $120 in 1958; 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 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $120; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1958: $100 is worth $120 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1958/