$100 in 1948 is worth $1,302 in 2024,
because prices increased 1201.6% over that period, an average of
3.43% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$1,302
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1201.6%
Average inflation rate
3.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,302
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,202
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1948 → 2024
$1,302
$100 in 2024 → 1948
$7.68
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2024
Between 1948 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1201.6%, which works out to an average of
3.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2024: the 1948 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2024 at the same ratio, 13.02: $1,000 becomes
$13,016, and $10,000 becomes $130,161.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2024
$1.00
$13.02
$5.00
$65.08
$10.00
$130
$20.00
$260
$50.00
$651
$100
$1,302
$500
$6,508
$1,000
$13,016
$5,000
$65,081
$10,000
$130,161
$100,000
$1,301,614
$1,000,000
$13,016,141
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2024
Between 1948 and 2024, medical care rose the most, up 3815.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 209.4%, against 1201.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.43%
$1,302
Medical care
4.94%
$3,916
Transportation
3.45%
$1,314
Food
3.40%
$1,265
Apparel
1.50%
$309
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 2024
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 1948–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$1,302
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $491 by
1988, on its way to $1,302 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $1,302; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2024: $100 is worth $1,302 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2024/