$100 in 1948 is worth $301 in 1979,
because prices increased 201.2% over that period, an average of
3.62% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$301
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
201.2%
Average inflation rate
3.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$301
Price difference ($100 base)
$201
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1948 → 1979
$301
$100 in 1979 → 1948
$33.20
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1979
Between 1948 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 201.2%, which works out to an average of
3.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1979: the 1948 dollar
lost 66.8% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1979 at the same ratio, 3.01: $1,000 becomes
$3,012, and $10,000 becomes $30,124.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1979
$1.00
$3.01
$5.00
$15.06
$10.00
$30.12
$20.00
$60.25
$50.00
$151
$100
$301
$500
$1,506
$1,000
$3,012
$5,000
$15,062
$10,000
$30,124
$100,000
$301,245
$1,000,000
$3,012,448
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1979
Between 1948 and 1979, medical care rose the most, up 368.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 99.8%, against 201.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.62%
$301
Medical care
5.11%
$469
Transportation
4.05%
$342
Food
3.68%
$306
Apparel
2.26%
$200
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$301
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $129 by
1964, on its way to $301 in 1979; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 11.3% in 1979, and prices fell 1.2% in 1949, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $301; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1979: $100 is worth $301 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1979/