$100 in 1948 is worth $953 in 2012,
because prices increased 852.7% over that period, an average of
3.58% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$953
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
852.7%
Average inflation rate
3.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$953
Price difference ($100 base)
$853
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1948 → 2012
$953
$100 in 2012 → 1948
$10.50
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2012
Between 1948 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 852.7%, which works out to an average of
3.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2012: the 1948 dollar
lost 89.5% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2012 at the same ratio, 9.53: $1,000 becomes
$9,527, and $10,000 becomes $95,267.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2012
$1.00
$9.53
$5.00
$47.63
$10.00
$95.27
$20.00
$191
$50.00
$476
$100
$953
$500
$4,763
$1,000
$9,527
$5,000
$47,634
$10,000
$95,267
$100,000
$952,672
$1,000,000
$9,526,722
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2012
Between 1948 and 2012, medical care rose the most, up 2781.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 197.1%, against 852.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.58%
$953
Medical care
5.39%
$2,881
Transportation
3.75%
$1,055
Food
3.49%
$896
Apparel
1.72%
$297
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 2012
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 1948–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$953
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $271 by
1978, on its way to $953 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $953; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2012: $100 is worth $953 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2012/