$100 in 1948 is worth $131 in 1965,
because prices increased 30.7% over that period, an average of
1.59% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$131
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
30.7%
Average inflation rate
1.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$131
Price difference ($100 base)
$30.71
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1948 → 1965
$131
$100 in 1965 → 1948
$76.51
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1965
Between 1948 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 30.7%, which works out to an average of
1.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1965: the 1948 dollar
lost 23.5% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1965 at the same ratio, 1.31: $1,000 becomes
$1,307, and $10,000 becomes $13,071.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.31
$5.00
$6.54
$10.00
$13.07
$20.00
$26.14
$50.00
$65.35
$100
$131
$500
$654
$1,000
$1,307
$5,000
$6,535
$10,000
$13,071
$100,000
$130,705
$1,000,000
$1,307,054
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1965
Between 1948 and 1965, medical care rose the most, up 75.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 12.5%, against 30.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.59%
$131
Medical care
3.35%
$175
Transportation
2.61%
$155
Food
1.24%
$123
Apparel
0.69%
$112
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 1965
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 1948–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$131
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $113 by
1956, on its way to $131 in 1965; 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 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $131; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1965: $100 is worth $131 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1965/