$100 in 1949 is worth $724 in 2000,
because prices increased 623.5% over that period, an average of
3.96% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$724
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
623.5%
Average inflation rate
3.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$724
Price difference ($100 base)
$624
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1949 → 2000
$724
$100 in 2000 → 1949
$13.82
What happened to prices between 1949 and 2000
Between 1949 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 623.5%, which works out to an average of
3.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.14 buys in 2000: the 1949 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 2000 at the same ratio, 7.24: $1,000 becomes
$7,235, and $10,000 becomes $72,353.
Amount in 1949
Value in 2000
$1.00
$7.24
$5.00
$36.18
$10.00
$72.35
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$362
$100
$724
$500
$3,618
$1,000
$7,235
$5,000
$36,176
$10,000
$72,353
$100,000
$723,529
$1,000,000
$7,235,294
Inflation by spending category, 1949–2000
Between 1949 and 2000, medical care rose the most, up 1662.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 217.6%, against 623.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.96%
$724
Medical care
5.79%
$1,762
Transportation
3.87%
$694
Food
3.80%
$671
Apparel
2.29%
$318
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 2000
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 1949–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$724
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $226 by
1975, on its way to $724 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $724; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 2000: $100 is worth $724 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2000/