$100 in 1948 is worth $152 in 1969,
because prices increased 52.3% over that period, an average of
2.02% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$152
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
52.3%
Average inflation rate
2.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$152
Price difference ($100 base)
$52.28
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1948 → 1969
$152
$100 in 1969 → 1948
$65.67
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1969
Between 1948 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 52.3%, which works out to an average of
2.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1969: the 1948 dollar
lost 34.3% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1969 at the same ratio, 1.52: $1,000 becomes
$1,523, and $10,000 becomes $15,228.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1969
$1.00
$1.52
$5.00
$7.61
$10.00
$15.23
$20.00
$30.46
$50.00
$76.14
$100
$152
$500
$761
$1,000
$1,523
$5,000
$7,614
$10,000
$15,228
$100,000
$152,282
$1,000,000
$1,522,822
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1969
Between 1948 and 1969, medical care rose the most, up 121.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 33.6%, against 52.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.02%
$152
Medical care
3.86%
$222
Transportation
2.65%
$173
Food
1.69%
$142
Apparel
1.39%
$134
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 1969
Prices climbed fastest in the 1960s, averaging 2.42% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$152
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $120 by
1958, on its way to $152 in 1969; 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 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $152; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1969: $100 is worth $152 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1969/