$100 in 1949 is worth $979 in 2013,
because prices increased 878.8% over that period, an average of
3.63% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$979
in 2013
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
878.8%
Average inflation rate
3.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$979
Price difference ($100 base)
$879
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 2013
232.957
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 2013
1.46%
$100 in 1949 → 2013
$979
$100 in 2013 → 1949
$10.22
What happened to prices between 1949 and 2013
Between 1949 and 2013, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 232.957.
Cumulatively, prices increased 878.8%, which works out to an average of
3.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2013: the 1949 dollar
lost 89.8% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 2013 at the same ratio, 9.79: $1,000 becomes
$9,788, and $10,000 becomes $97,881.
Amount in 1949
Value in 2013
$1.00
$9.79
$5.00
$48.94
$10.00
$97.88
$20.00
$196
$50.00
$489
$100
$979
$500
$4,894
$1,000
$9,788
$5,000
$48,941
$10,000
$97,881
$100,000
$978,811
$1,000,000
$9,788,109
Inflation by spending category, 1949–2013
Between 1949 and 2013, medical care rose the most, up 2772.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 212.3%, against 878.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 2013, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.63%
$979
Medical care
5.39%
$2,873
Transportation
3.64%
$984
Food
3.58%
$948
Apparel
1.80%
$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 2013
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 1949–2013 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$916
2010–2013
2.23%
6.8%
$979
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $305 by
1979, on its way to $979 in 2013; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2013
In 2013, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $979; the year's average CPI of 232.957 is the level
behind every 2013 figure on this page.
2013 was a low-inflation year with a lot of noise around the Federal Reserve.
Consumer prices rose 1.5%, below the Fed’s 2% target, and gasoline eased to an
average of $3.51 a gallon. Housing was the exception: the median new home sold
for about $268,900, up sharply from $245,200 in 2012, as the market recovered
from its post-crisis bottom.
The Fed dominated the news. Chairman Ben Bernanke’s May comments about slowing
bond purchases pushed long-term interest rates up by roughly a percentage
point that summer, and mortgages became more expensive within weeks. In
December the Fed finally announced a first small cut to its purchases while
promising to keep short-term rates near zero for a long time.
Washington added its own disruption. A 16-day government shutdown in October
delayed data releases and left a hole in that month’s CPI collection. Median
household income was reported at $53,585, the federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp cost 46 cents. The decade’s pattern was taking
shape: slow price growth, ultra-low interest rates, and a labor market that
improved gradually.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 2013: $100 is worth $979 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2013/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 2013. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2013/