$100 in 1948 is worth $615 in 1994,
because prices increased 514.9% over that period, an average of
4.03% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$615
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
514.9%
Average inflation rate
4.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$615
Price difference ($100 base)
$515
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1948 → 1994
$615
$100 in 1994 → 1948
$16.26
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1994
Between 1948 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 514.9%, which works out to an average of
4.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1994: the 1948 dollar
lost 83.7% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1994 at the same ratio, 6.15: $1,000 becomes
$6,149, and $10,000 becomes $61,494.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1994
$1.00
$6.15
$5.00
$30.75
$10.00
$61.49
$20.00
$123
$50.00
$307
$100
$615
$500
$3,075
$1,000
$6,149
$5,000
$30,747
$10,000
$61,494
$100,000
$614,938
$1,000,000
$6,149,378
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1994
Between 1948 and 1994, medical care rose the most, up 1365.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 213.9%, against 514.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.03%
$615
Medical care
6.01%
$1,465
Transportation
4.16%
$652
Food
3.79%
$553
Apparel
2.52%
$314
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 1994
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 1948–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$615
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $161 by
1970, on its way to $615 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $615; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1994: $100 is worth $615 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1994/