$100 in 1948 is worth $784 in 2004,
because prices increased 683.8% over that period, an average of
3.75% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$784
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
683.8%
Average inflation rate
3.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$784
Price difference ($100 base)
$684
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1948 → 2004
$784
$100 in 2004 → 1948
$12.76
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2004
Between 1948 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 683.8%, which works out to an average of
3.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2004: the 1948 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 2004 at the same ratio, 7.84: $1,000 becomes
$7,838, and $10,000 becomes $78,382.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2004
$1.00
$7.84
$5.00
$39.19
$10.00
$78.38
$20.00
$157
$50.00
$392
$100
$784
$500
$3,919
$1,000
$7,838
$5,000
$39,191
$10,000
$78,382
$100,000
$783,817
$1,000,000
$7,838,174
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2004
Between 1948 and 2004, medical care rose the most, up 2053.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 183.3%, against 683.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.75%
$784
Medical care
5.63%
$2,153
Transportation
3.76%
$792
Food
3.57%
$713
Apparel
1.88%
$283
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 2004
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 1948–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$784
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $236 by
1976, on its way to $784 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $784; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2004: $100 is worth $784 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2004/