$100 in 1948 is worth $983 in 2015,
because prices increased 883.5% over that period, an average of
3.47% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$983
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
883.5%
Average inflation rate
3.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$983
Price difference ($100 base)
$883
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1948 → 2015
$983
$100 in 2015 → 1948
$10.17
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2015
Between 1948 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 883.5%, which works out to an average of
3.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2015: the 1948 dollar
lost 89.8% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2015 at the same ratio, 9.83: $1,000 becomes
$9,835, and $10,000 becomes $98,347.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2015
$1.00
$9.83
$5.00
$49.17
$10.00
$98.35
$20.00
$197
$50.00
$492
$100
$983
$500
$4,917
$1,000
$9,835
$5,000
$49,174
$10,000
$98,347
$100,000
$983,473
$1,000,000
$9,834,730
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2015
Between 1948 and 2015, medical care rose the most, up 3002.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 196.2%, against 883.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.47%
$983
Medical care
5.26%
$3,102
Transportation
3.44%
$966
Food
3.41%
$947
Apparel
1.63%
$296
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 2015
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 1948–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$983
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $413 by
1983, on its way to $983 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $983; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2015: $100 is worth $983 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2015/