$100 in 1948 is worth $431 in 1984,
because prices increased 331.1% over that period, an average of
4.14% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$431
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
331.1%
Average inflation rate
4.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$431
Price difference ($100 base)
$331
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1948 → 1984
$431
$100 in 1984 → 1948
$23.20
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1984
Between 1948 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 331.1%, which works out to an average of
4.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1984: the 1948 dollar
lost 76.8% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1984 at the same ratio, 4.31: $1,000 becomes
$4,311, and $10,000 becomes $43,112.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1984
$1.00
$4.31
$5.00
$21.56
$10.00
$43.11
$20.00
$86.22
$50.00
$216
$100
$431
$500
$2,156
$1,000
$4,311
$5,000
$21,556
$10,000
$43,112
$100,000
$431,120
$1,000,000
$4,311,203
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1984
Between 1948 and 1984, medical care rose the most, up 641.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 140.2%, against 331.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.14%
$431
Medical care
5.72%
$742
Transportation
4.59%
$503
Food
3.89%
$395
Apparel
2.46%
$240
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 1984
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 1948–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$431
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $134 by
1966, on its way to $431 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $431; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1984: $100 is worth $431 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1984/