$100 in 1948 is worth $184 in 1973,
because prices increased 84.2% over that period, an average of
2.47% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$184
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
84.2%
Average inflation rate
2.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$184
Price difference ($100 base)
$84.23
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1948 → 1973
$184
$100 in 1973 → 1948
$54.28
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1973
Between 1948 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 84.2%, which works out to an average of
2.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1973: the 1948 dollar
lost 45.7% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1973 at the same ratio, 1.84: $1,000 becomes
$1,842, and $10,000 becomes $18,423.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1973
$1.00
$1.84
$5.00
$9.21
$10.00
$18.42
$20.00
$36.85
$50.00
$92.12
$100
$184
$500
$921
$1,000
$1,842
$5,000
$9,212
$10,000
$18,423
$100,000
$184,232
$1,000,000
$1,842,324
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1973
Between 1948 and 1973, medical care rose the most, up 169.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 52.0%, against 84.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.47%
$184
Medical care
4.04%
$269
Transportation
2.81%
$200
Food
2.48%
$185
Apparel
1.69%
$152
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 1973
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 4.60% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$184
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $123 by
1960, on its way to $184 in 1973; 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 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $184; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1973: $100 is worth $184 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1973/