$100 in 1948 is worth $1,336 in 2025,
because prices increased 1235.9% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1948 has
the same buying power as
$1,336
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1235.9%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,336
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,236
CPI in 1948
24.1
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1948 → 2025
$1,336
$100 in 2025 → 1948
$7.49
What happened to prices between 1948 and 2025
Between 1948 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 24.1 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1235.9%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1948 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2025: the 1948 dollar
lost 92.5% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2025 at the same ratio, 13.36: $1,000 becomes
$13,359, and $10,000 becomes $133,586.
Amount in 1948
Value in 2025
$1.00
$13.36
$5.00
$66.79
$10.00
$134
$20.00
$267
$50.00
$668
$100
$1,336
$500
$6,679
$1,000
$13,359
$5,000
$66,793
$10,000
$133,586
$100,000
$1,335,863
$1,000,000
$13,358,631
Inflation by spending category, 1948–2025
Between 1948 and 2025, medical care rose the most, up 3928.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 209.0%, against 1235.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1948
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1948 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$1,336
Medical care
4.92%
$4,028
Transportation
3.41%
$1,321
Food
3.39%
$1,301
Apparel
1.48%
$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 2025
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 1948–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$1,336
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1948
$100 from 1948 had already become $491 by
1988, on its way to $1,336 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1948 had the buying
power of $1,336; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1948 to 2025: $100 is worth $1,336 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1948 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1948-to-2025/