$100 in 1948 is worth $1,017 in 2017,
because prices increased 917.1% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$1,017
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
917.1%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,017
Price difference ($100 base)
$917
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1948 → 2017
$1,017
$100 in 2017 → 1948
$9.83
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2017
Between 1948 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 917.1%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2017: the 1948 dollar
lost 90.2% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 2017 at the same ratio, 10.17: $1,000 becomes
$10,171, and $10,000 becomes $101,710.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2017
$1.00
$10.17
$5.00
$50.85
$10.00
$102
$20.00
$203
$50.00
$509
$100
$1,017
$500
$5,085
$1,000
$10,171
$5,000
$50,855
$10,000
$101,710
$100,000
$1,017,095
$1,000,000
$10,170,954
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2017
Between 1948 and 2017, medical care rose the most, up 3200.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 195.6%, against 917.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$1,017
Medical care
5.20%
$3,301
Transportation
3.36%
$978
Food
3.33%
$958
Apparel
1.58%
$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 2017
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 1948–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,017
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $413 by
1983, on its way to $1,017 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $1,017; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,017 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2017/