$100 in 1949 is worth $905 in 2008,
because prices increased 804.6% over that period, an average of
3.80% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$905
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
804.6%
Average inflation rate
3.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$905
Price difference ($100 base)
$805
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1949 → 2008
$905
$100 in 2008 → 1949
$11.05
What happened to prices between 1949 and 2008
Between 1949 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 804.6%, which works out to an average of
3.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2008: the 1949 dollar
lost 88.9% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 2008 at the same ratio, 9.05: $1,000 becomes
$9,046, and $10,000 becomes $90,463.
Amount in 1949
Value in 2008
$1.00
$9.05
$5.00
$45.23
$10.00
$90.46
$20.00
$181
$50.00
$452
$100
$905
$500
$4,523
$1,000
$9,046
$5,000
$45,232
$10,000
$90,463
$100,000
$904,634
$1,000,000
$9,046,345
Inflation by spending category, 1949–2008
Between 1949 and 2008, medical care rose the most, up 2359.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 191.4%, against 804.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.80%
$905
Medical care
5.58%
$2,460
Transportation
3.76%
$885
Food
3.71%
$856
Apparel
1.83%
$291
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 2008
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 1949–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$905
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $305 by
1979, on its way to $905 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $905; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 2008: $100 is worth $905 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2008/