$100 in 1948 is worth $168 in 1971,
because prices increased 68.0% over that period, an average of
2.28% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$168
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
68.0%
Average inflation rate
2.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$168
Price difference ($100 base)
$68.05
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1948 → 1971
$168
$100 in 1971 → 1948
$59.51
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1971
Between 1948 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 68.0%, which works out to an average of
2.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1971: the 1948 dollar
lost 40.5% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1971 at the same ratio, 1.68: $1,000 becomes
$1,680, and $10,000 becomes $16,805.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1971
$1.00
$1.68
$5.00
$8.40
$10.00
$16.80
$20.00
$33.61
$50.00
$84.02
$100
$168
$500
$840
$1,000
$1,680
$5,000
$8,402
$10,000
$16,805
$100,000
$168,050
$1,000,000
$1,680,498
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1971
Between 1948 and 1971, medical care rose the most, up 150.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 43.8%, against 68.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.28%
$168
Medical care
4.08%
$251
Transportation
2.87%
$192
Food
1.92%
$155
Apparel
1.59%
$144
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 1971
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.38% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$161
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$168
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $121 by
1959, on its way to $168 in 1971; 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 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $168; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1971: $100 is worth $168 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1971/