$100 in 1948 is worth $1,264 in 2023,
because prices increased 1164.3% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$1,264
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1164.3%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,264
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,164
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1948 → 2023
$1,264
$100 in 2023 → 1948
$7.91
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2023
Between 1948 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1164.3%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2023: the 1948 dollar
lost 92.1% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 2023 at the same ratio, 12.64: $1,000 becomes
$12,643, and $10,000 becomes $126,432.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2023
$1.00
$12.64
$5.00
$63.22
$10.00
$126
$20.00
$253
$50.00
$632
$100
$1,264
$500
$6,322
$1,000
$12,643
$5,000
$63,216
$10,000
$126,432
$100,000
$1,264,324
$1,000,000
$12,643,237
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2023
Between 1948 and 2023, medical care rose the most, up 3713.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 207.2%, against 1164.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$1,264
Medical care
4.97%
$3,813
Transportation
3.47%
$1,296
Food
3.41%
$1,237
Apparel
1.51%
$307
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 2023
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 1948–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,074
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,264
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $413 by
1983, on its way to $1,264 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $1,264; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,264 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2023/