$100 in 1948 is worth $1,061 in 2019,
because prices increased 960.8% over that period, an average of
3.38% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$1,061
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
960.8%
Average inflation rate
3.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,061
Price difference ($100 base)
$961
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1948 → 2019
$1,061
$100 in 2019 → 1948
$9.43
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2019
Between 1948 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 960.8%, which works out to an average of
3.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2019: the 1948 dollar
lost 90.6% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 2019 at the same ratio, 10.61: $1,000 becomes
$10,608, and $10,000 becomes $106,082.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2019
$1.00
$10.61
$5.00
$53.04
$10.00
$106
$20.00
$212
$50.00
$530
$100
$1,061
$500
$5,304
$1,000
$10,608
$5,000
$53,041
$10,000
$106,082
$100,000
$1,060,817
$1,000,000
$10,608,174
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2019
Between 1948 and 2019, medical care rose the most, up 3361.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.9%, against 960.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.38%
$1,061
Medical care
5.12%
$3,461
Transportation
3.32%
$1,020
Food
3.28%
$990
Apparel
1.52%
$292
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 2019
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 1948–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,061
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $413 by
1983, on its way to $1,061 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $1,061; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,061 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2019/