$100 in 1949 is worth $572 in 1991,
because prices increased 472.3% over that period, an average of
4.24% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$572
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
472.3%
Average inflation rate
4.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$572
Price difference ($100 base)
$472
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1949 → 1991
$572
$100 in 1991 → 1949
$17.47
What happened to prices between 1949 and 1991
Between 1949 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 472.3%, which works out to an average of
4.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1991: the 1949 dollar
lost 82.5% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1991 at the same ratio, 5.72: $1,000 becomes
$5,723, and $10,000 becomes $57,227.
Amount in 1949
Value in 1991
$1.00
$5.72
$5.00
$28.61
$10.00
$57.23
$20.00
$114
$50.00
$286
$100
$572
$500
$2,861
$1,000
$5,723
$5,000
$28,613
$10,000
$57,227
$100,000
$572,269
$1,000,000
$5,722,689
Inflation by spending category, 1949–1991
Between 1949 and 1991, medical care rose the most, up 1095.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 215.4%, against 472.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.24%
$572
Medical care
6.09%
$1,196
Transportation
4.19%
$560
Food
4.12%
$545
Apparel
2.77%
$315
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 1991
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 1949–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$549
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$572
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $154 by
1969, on its way to $572 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $572; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 1991: $100 is worth $572 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-1991/