$100 in 1948 is worth $125 in 1962,
because prices increased 25.3% over that period, an average of
1.62% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$125
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
25.3%
Average inflation rate
1.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$125
Price difference ($100 base)
$25.31
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1948 → 1962
$125
$100 in 1962 → 1948
$79.80
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1962
Between 1948 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 25.3%, which works out to an average of
1.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.80 buys in 1962: the 1948 dollar
lost 20.2% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1962 at the same ratio, 1.25: $1,000 becomes
$1,253, and $10,000 becomes $12,531.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.25
$5.00
$6.27
$10.00
$12.53
$20.00
$25.06
$50.00
$62.66
$100
$125
$500
$627
$1,000
$1,253
$5,000
$6,266
$10,000
$12,531
$100,000
$125,311
$1,000,000
$1,253,112
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1962
Between 1948 and 1962, medical care rose the most, up 63.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 8.9%, against 25.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.62%
$125
Medical care
3.56%
$163
Transportation
2.91%
$150
Food
1.14%
$117
Apparel
0.61%
$109
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 1962
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 2.08% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1962 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1948, at end
1948–1950
0.00%
0.0%
$100
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$123
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$125
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $111 by
1955, on its way to $125 in 1962; 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 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $125; the year's average CPI of 30.2 is the level
behind every 1962 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1962, matching 1961’s pace as
inflation stayed remarkably low and unemployment slowly declined from its
recession-era highs. That January, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers
introduced “wage-price guideposts,” non-binding targets meant to keep pay
and price increases in line with productivity growth without formal
controls. The space race delivered a milestone that February, when John
Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule circled Earth three times, making him the
first American to orbit the planet. Markets got a scare that spring: a
dispute over U.S. Steel’s April price increase, which Kennedy publicly
pressured the company into rolling back, rattled investors, and the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell about 5.7% on May 28, its steepest one-day
drop since the 1929 crash. The year’s gravest moment came that October,
when American reconnaissance photographed Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba, setting off a 13-day standoff that brought the two superpowers
closer to nuclear war than at any other point in the Cold War before the
Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge
not to invade the island. Consumer prices finished 1962 205.1% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.15 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1962: $100 is worth $125 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1962/