$100 in 1948 is worth $121 in 1959,
because prices increased 20.7% over that period, an average of
1.73% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.7%
Average inflation rate
1.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.75
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1948 → 1959
$121
$100 in 1959 → 1948
$82.82
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1959
Between 1948 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.7%, which works out to an average of
1.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1959: the 1948 dollar
lost 17.2% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1959 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,207, and $10,000 becomes $12,075.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1959
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.04
$10.00
$12.07
$20.00
$24.15
$50.00
$60.37
$100
$121
$500
$604
$1,000
$1,207
$5,000
$6,037
$10,000
$12,075
$100,000
$120,747
$1,000,000
$1,207,469
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1959
Between 1948 and 1959, medical care rose the most, up 49.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 5.9%, against 20.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.73%
$121
Medical care
3.71%
$149
Transportation
3.41%
$145
Food
1.18%
$114
Apparel
0.52%
$106
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 1959
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.12% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1959 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $111 by
1953, on its way to $121 in 1959; 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 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $121; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1959: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1959/