$100 in 1948 is worth $565 in 1991,
because prices increased 465.1% over that period, an average of
4.11% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$565
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
465.1%
Average inflation rate
4.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$565
Price difference ($100 base)
$465
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1948 → 1991
$565
$100 in 1991 → 1948
$17.69
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1991
Between 1948 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 465.1%, which works out to an average of
4.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1991: the 1948 dollar
lost 82.3% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1991 at the same ratio, 5.65: $1,000 becomes
$5,651, and $10,000 becomes $56,515.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1991
$1.00
$5.65
$5.00
$28.26
$10.00
$56.51
$20.00
$113
$50.00
$283
$100
$565
$500
$2,826
$1,000
$5,651
$5,000
$28,257
$10,000
$56,515
$100,000
$565,145
$1,000,000
$5,651,452
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1991
Between 1948 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1129.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 202.8%, against 465.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.11%
$565
Medical care
6.01%
$1,229
Transportation
4.26%
$601
Food
3.92%
$522
Apparel
2.61%
$303
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 1991
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 1948–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$542
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$565
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $161 by
1970, on its way to $565 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $565; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1991: $100 is worth $565 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1991/