$100 in 1948 is worth $905 in 2010,
because prices increased 804.8% over that period, an average of
3.62% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$905
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
804.8%
Average inflation rate
3.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$905
Price difference ($100 base)
$805
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1948 → 2010
$905
$100 in 2010 → 1948
$11.05
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2010
Between 1948 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 804.8%, which works out to an average of
3.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2010: the 1948 dollar
lost 88.9% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 2010 at the same ratio, 9.05: $1,000 becomes
$9,048, and $10,000 becomes $90,480.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2010
$1.00
$9.05
$5.00
$45.24
$10.00
$90.48
$20.00
$181
$50.00
$452
$100
$905
$500
$4,524
$1,000
$9,048
$5,000
$45,240
$10,000
$90,480
$100,000
$904,797
$1,000,000
$9,047,967
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2010
Between 1948 and 2010, medical care rose the most, up 2597.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 181.2%, against 804.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.62%
$905
Medical care
5.46%
$2,697
Transportation
3.68%
$939
Food
3.50%
$841
Apparel
1.68%
$281
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 2010
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 1948–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$905
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $271 by
1978, on its way to $905 in 2010; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $905; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2010: $100 is worth $905 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2010/