$100 in 1949 is worth $382 in 1981,
because prices increased 281.9% over that period, an average of
4.28% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$382
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
281.9%
Average inflation rate
4.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$382
Price difference ($100 base)
$282
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1949 → 1981
$382
$100 in 1981 → 1949
$26.18
What happened to prices between 1949 and 1981
Between 1949 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 281.9%, which works out to an average of
4.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.26 buys in 1981: the 1949 dollar
lost 73.8% of its purchasing power over
these 32 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.2% in 1949, down from 1948’s 8.1%
gain and the first annual decline since 1939, the first real break in a
decade otherwise defined by wartime and postwar inflation. A mild recession
drove the drop: the National Bureau of Economic Research dates a downturn
from November 1948 to October 1949, as businesses worked off inventories
built up during the postwar buying boom and price pressure finally eased.
The Cold War hardened around the same time. On April 4, the United States,
Canada, and ten Western European nations signed the North Atlantic Treaty,
committing to treat an attack on one member as an attack on all and
formalizing the Western alliance against Soviet expansion. That August 29,
the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, ending the American nuclear
monopoly just four years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki and setting off an
arms race that would run for decades. Congress closed out the decade’s wage
policy that October, passing the Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1949 to
raise the federal minimum wage to 75 cents an hour effective the following
January, nearly double the 40 cents that had held since 1945. The decade
closed with consumer prices 140.4% above their 1913 level,
up 70% since 1940 alone even after 1949’s decline.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
Every 1949 amount converts to 1981 at the same ratio, 3.82: $1,000 becomes
$3,819, and $10,000 becomes $38,193.
Amount in 1949
Value in 1981
$1.00
$3.82
$5.00
$19.10
$10.00
$38.19
$20.00
$76.39
$50.00
$191
$100
$382
$500
$1,910
$1,000
$3,819
$5,000
$19,097
$10,000
$38,193
$100,000
$381,933
$1,000,000
$3,819,328
Inflation by spending category, 1949–1981
Between 1949 and 1981, medical care rose the most, up 460.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 133.6%, against 281.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.28%
$382
Medical care
5.53%
$560
Transportation
4.60%
$422
Food
4.21%
$374
Apparel
2.69%
$234
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1949: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1949 to 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (1.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1949–1981 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1949, at end
1949–1950
1.26%
1.3%
$101
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$124
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$163
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$346
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$382
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $132 by
1965, on its way to $382 in 1981; 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 0.4% in 1955, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $382; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 1981: $100 is worth $382 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1981/