$100 in 1949 is worth $477 in 1987,
because prices increased 377.3% over that period, an average of
4.20% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$477
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
377.3%
Average inflation rate
4.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$477
Price difference ($100 base)
$377
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1949 → 1987
$477
$100 in 1987 → 1949
$20.95
What happened to prices between 1949 and 1987
Between 1949 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 377.3%, which works out to an average of
4.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1987: the 1949 dollar
lost 79.0% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1987 at the same ratio, 4.77: $1,000 becomes
$4,773, and $10,000 becomes $47,731.
Amount in 1949
Value in 1987
$1.00
$4.77
$5.00
$23.87
$10.00
$47.73
$20.00
$95.46
$50.00
$239
$100
$477
$500
$2,387
$1,000
$4,773
$5,000
$23,866
$10,000
$47,731
$100,000
$477,311
$1,000,000
$4,773,109
Inflation by spending category, 1949–1987
Between 1949 and 1987, medical care rose the most, up 779.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 171.1%, against 377.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.20%
$477
Medical care
5.89%
$879
Transportation
4.20%
$477
Food
4.06%
$454
Apparel
2.66%
$271
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 1987
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and slowest in the 1940s (1.26% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1949–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$477
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $140 by
1967, on its way to $477 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $477; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 1987: $100 is worth $477 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1987/