$100 in 1949 is worth $1,008 in 2016,
because prices increased 908.4% over that period, an average of
3.51% a year.
$100 in 1949 has
the same buying power as
$1,008
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
908.4%
Average inflation rate
3.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,008
Price difference ($100 base)
$908
CPI in 1949
23.8
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1949
-1.24%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1949 → 2016
$1,008
$100 in 2016 → 1949
$9.92
What happened to prices between 1949 and 2016
Between 1949 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 23.8 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 908.4%, which works out to an average of
3.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1949 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2016: the 1949 dollar
lost 90.1% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 2016 at the same ratio, 10.08: $1,000 becomes
$10,084, and $10,000 becomes $100,843.
Amount in 1949
Value in 2016
$1.00
$10.08
$5.00
$50.42
$10.00
$101
$20.00
$202
$50.00
$504
$100
$1,008
$500
$5,042
$1,000
$10,084
$5,000
$50,422
$10,000
$100,843
$100,000
$1,008,433
$1,000,000
$10,084,328
Inflation by spending category, 1949–2016
Between 1949 and 2016, medical care rose the most, up 3032.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 208.9%, against 908.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1949
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1949 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.51%
$1,008
Medical care
5.28%
$3,133
Food
3.48%
$992
Transportation
3.30%
$882
Apparel
1.70%
$309
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 2016
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 1949–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$1,008
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1949
$100 from 1949 had already become $437 by
1984, on its way to $1,008 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1949 had the buying
power of $1,008; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1949 to 2016: $100 is worth $1,008 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1949 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1949-to-2016/