$100 in 1948 is worth $763 in 2003,
because prices increased 663.5% over that period, an average of
3.77% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$763
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
663.5%
Average inflation rate
3.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$763
Price difference ($100 base)
$663
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1948 → 2003
$763
$100 in 2003 → 1948
$13.10
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2003
Between 1948 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 663.5%, which works out to an average of
3.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2003: the 1948 dollar
lost 86.9% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 2003 at the same ratio, 7.63: $1,000 becomes
$7,635, and $10,000 becomes $76,349.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2003
$1.00
$7.63
$5.00
$38.17
$10.00
$76.35
$20.00
$153
$50.00
$382
$100
$763
$500
$3,817
$1,000
$7,635
$5,000
$38,174
$10,000
$76,349
$100,000
$763,485
$1,000,000
$7,634,855
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2003
Between 1948 and 2003, medical care rose the most, up 1963.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 184.5%, against 663.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.77%
$763
Medical care
5.66%
$2,063
Transportation
3.77%
$765
Food
3.57%
$690
Apparel
1.92%
$284
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 2003
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 1948–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$763
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $236 by
1976, on its way to $763 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $763; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2003: $100 is worth $763 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2003/