$100 in 1948 is worth $632 in 1995,
because prices increased 532.4% over that period, an average of
4.00% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$632
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
532.4%
Average inflation rate
4.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$632
Price difference ($100 base)
$532
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1948 → 1995
$632
$100 in 1995 → 1948
$15.81
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1995
Between 1948 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 532.4%, which works out to an average of
4.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1995: the 1948 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1995 at the same ratio, 6.32: $1,000 becomes
$6,324, and $10,000 becomes $63,237.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1995
$1.00
$6.32
$5.00
$31.62
$10.00
$63.24
$20.00
$126
$50.00
$316
$100
$632
$500
$3,162
$1,000
$6,324
$5,000
$31,618
$10,000
$63,237
$100,000
$632,365
$1,000,000
$6,323,651
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1995
Between 1948 and 1995, medical care rose the most, up 1431.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 210.6%, against 532.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.00%
$632
Medical care
5.98%
$1,531
Transportation
4.15%
$675
Food
3.77%
$569
Apparel
2.44%
$311
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 1995
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 1948–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$632
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $173 by
1972, on its way to $632 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $632; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1995: $100 is worth $632 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1995/