$100 in 1948 is worth $377 in 1981,
because prices increased 277.2% over that period, an average of
4.10% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$377
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
277.2%
Average inflation rate
4.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$377
Price difference ($100 base)
$277
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1948 → 1981
$377
$100 in 1981 → 1948
$26.51
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1981
Between 1948 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 277.2%, which works out to an average of
4.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1981: the 1948 dollar
lost 73.5% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1981 at the same ratio, 3.77: $1,000 becomes
$3,772, and $10,000 becomes $37,718.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.77
$5.00
$18.86
$10.00
$37.72
$20.00
$75.44
$50.00
$189
$100
$377
$500
$1,886
$1,000
$3,772
$5,000
$18,859
$10,000
$37,718
$100,000
$377,178
$1,000,000
$3,771,784
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1981
Between 1948 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 475.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 124.2%, against 277.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.10%
$377
Medical care
5.45%
$576
Transportation
4.68%
$452
Food
3.95%
$359
Apparel
2.48%
$224
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$342
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$377
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $129 by
1964, on its way to $377 in 1981; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 13.5% in 1980, 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $377; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1981: $100 is worth $377 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1981/