$100 in 1949 is worth $744 in 2001,
because prices increased 644.1% over that period, an average of
3.94% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$744
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
644.1%
Average inflation rate
3.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$744
Price difference ($100 base)
$644
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1949 → 2001
$744
$100 in 2001 → 1949
$13.44
What happened to prices between 1949 and 2001
Between 1949 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 644.1%, which works out to an average of
3.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.13 buys in 2001: the 1949 dollar
lost 86.6% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 2001 at the same ratio, 7.44: $1,000 becomes
$7,441, and $10,000 becomes $74,412.
Amount in 1949
Value in 2001
$1.00
$7.44
$5.00
$37.21
$10.00
$74.41
$20.00
$149
$50.00
$372
$100
$744
$500
$3,721
$1,000
$7,441
$5,000
$37,206
$10,000
$74,412
$100,000
$744,118
$1,000,000
$7,441,176
Inflation by spending category, 1949–2001
Between 1949 and 2001, medical care rose the most, up 1743.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 212.0%, against 644.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.94%
$744
Medical care
5.76%
$1,843
Transportation
3.81%
$698
Food
3.79%
$692
Apparel
2.21%
$312
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 2001
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 1949–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$744
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $226 by
1975, on its way to $744 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $744; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 2001: $100 is worth $744 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2001/