$100 in 1948 is worth $413 in 1983,
because prices increased 313.3% over that period, an average of
4.14% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$413
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
313.3%
Average inflation rate
4.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$413
Price difference ($100 base)
$313
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1948 → 1983
$413
$100 in 1983 → 1948
$24.20
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1983
Between 1948 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 313.3%, which works out to an average of
4.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1983: the 1948 dollar
lost 75.8% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1983 at the same ratio, 4.13: $1,000 becomes
$4,133, and $10,000 becomes $41,328.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1983
$1.00
$4.13
$5.00
$20.66
$10.00
$41.33
$20.00
$82.66
$50.00
$207
$100
$413
$500
$2,066
$1,000
$4,133
$5,000
$20,664
$10,000
$41,328
$100,000
$413,278
$1,000,000
$4,132,780
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1983
Between 1948 and 1983, medical care rose the most, up 598.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 135.8%, against 313.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.14%
$413
Medical care
5.71%
$699
Transportation
4.60%
$482
Food
3.89%
$381
Apparel
2.48%
$236
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (0.00% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1948–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$413
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $134 by
1966, on its way to $413 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $413; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1983: $100 is worth $413 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1983/