$100 in 1948 is worth $746 in 2002,
because prices increased 646.5% over that period, an average of
3.79% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$746
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
646.5%
Average inflation rate
3.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$746
Price difference ($100 base)
$646
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1948 → 2002
$746
$100 in 2002 → 1948
$13.40
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2002
Between 1948 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 646.5%, which works out to an average of
3.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2002: the 1948 dollar
lost 86.6% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 2002 at the same ratio, 7.46: $1,000 becomes
$7,465, and $10,000 becomes $74,647.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2002
$1.00
$7.46
$5.00
$37.32
$10.00
$74.65
$20.00
$149
$50.00
$373
$100
$746
$500
$3,732
$1,000
$7,465
$5,000
$37,324
$10,000
$74,647
$100,000
$746,473
$1,000,000
$7,464,730
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2002
Between 1948 and 2002, medical care rose the most, up 1883.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.8%, against 646.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.79%
$746
Medical care
5.69%
$1,983
Transportation
3.78%
$742
Food
3.60%
$675
Apparel
2.00%
$292
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 2002
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 1948–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$746
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $205 by
1974, on its way to $746 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $746; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2002: $100 is worth $746 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2002/