$100 in 1948 is worth $676 in 1998,
because prices increased 576.3% over that period, an average of
3.90% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$676
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
576.3%
Average inflation rate
3.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$676
Price difference ($100 base)
$576
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1948 → 1998
$676
$100 in 1998 → 1948
$14.79
What happened to prices between 1948 and 1998
Between 1948 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 576.3%, which works out to an average of
3.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1998: the 1948 dollar
lost 85.2% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1998 at the same ratio, 6.76: $1,000 becomes
$6,763, and $10,000 becomes $67,635.
Amount in 1948
Value in 1998
$1.00
$6.76
$5.00
$33.82
$10.00
$67.63
$20.00
$135
$50.00
$338
$100
$676
$500
$3,382
$1,000
$6,763
$5,000
$33,817
$10,000
$67,635
$100,000
$676,349
$1,000,000
$6,763,485
Inflation by spending category, 1948–1998
Between 1948 and 1998, medical care rose the most, up 1581.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 212.9%, against 576.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.90%
$676
Medical care
5.81%
$1,681
Transportation
3.93%
$687
Food
3.70%
$616
Apparel
2.31%
$313
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 1998
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 1948–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$676
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $173 by
1972, on its way to $676 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $676; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 1998: $100 is worth $676 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-1998/