$100 in 1948 is worth $1,042 in 2018,
because prices increased 941.9% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$1,042
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
941.9%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,042
Price difference ($100 base)
$942
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1948 → 2018
$1,042
$100 in 2018 → 1948
$9.60
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2018
Between 1948 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 941.9%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2018: the 1948 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 2018 at the same ratio, 10.42: $1,000 becomes
$10,419, and $10,000 becomes $104,194.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2018
$1.00
$10.42
$5.00
$52.10
$10.00
$104
$20.00
$208
$50.00
$521
$100
$1,042
$500
$5,210
$1,000
$10,419
$5,000
$52,097
$10,000
$104,194
$100,000
$1,041,938
$1,000,000
$10,419,378
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2018
Between 1948 and 2018, medical care rose the most, up 3266.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 195.7%, against 941.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$1,042
Medical care
5.15%
$3,366
Transportation
3.38%
$1,023
Food
3.30%
$971
Apparel
1.56%
$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 2018
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 1948–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,042
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $413 by
1983, on its way to $1,042 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $1,042; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,042 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2018/