$100 in 1948 is worth $735 in 2001,
because prices increased 634.9% over that period, an average of
3.83% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$735
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
634.9%
Average inflation rate
3.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$735
Price difference ($100 base)
$635
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1948 → 2001
$735
$100 in 2001 → 1948
$13.61
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2001
Between 1948 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 634.9%, which works out to an average of
3.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2001: the 1948 dollar
lost 86.4% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 2001 at the same ratio, 7.35: $1,000 becomes
$7,349, and $10,000 becomes $73,485.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2001
$1.00
$7.35
$5.00
$36.74
$10.00
$73.49
$20.00
$147
$50.00
$367
$100
$735
$500
$3,674
$1,000
$7,349
$5,000
$36,743
$10,000
$73,485
$100,000
$734,855
$1,000,000
$7,348,548
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2001
Between 1948 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1794.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 199.5%, against 634.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.83%
$735
Medical care
5.71%
$1,894
Transportation
3.87%
$749
Food
3.63%
$663
Apparel
2.09%
$300
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 2001
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 1948–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$715
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$735
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $205 by
1974, on its way to $735 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $735; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2001: $100 is worth $735 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2001/