What America was like in 1948
You were born in…
1948
This is where your story begins.
You’ve been here for
78
years
That’s about 28,500 days of history.
A first-class stamp in 1948 cost
3¢
Today the same stamp costs 82¢.
A dollar from 1948 would be worth
$14.01
today
Measured by the government’s Consumer Price Index.
The federal minimum wage in 1948 was
40¢
an hour
Today it’s $7.25.
The president in 1948
Harry S. Truman
Since then you’ve lived under 14 presidents.
The 1950 census counted
151 million
Americans
By 2020 there were 331 million of us.
You’ve been around for
60
Super Bowls
Every single one of them. From Super Bowl I in 1967 to Super Bowl LX in 2026.
You’re older than…
- Swanson sold its first TV dinner1953. You were 5.
- Disneyland opened in California1955. You were 7.
- Congress created the Interstate Highway System1956. You were 8.
- NASA was founded1958. You were 10.
- Barbie went on sale1959. You were 11.
- The first Walmart opened in Rogers, Arkansas1962. You were 14.
…and 20 more on our list.
So yes,
you’ve seen the worldchange a lot.
And you remember it.
Your 1948 story
That was 1948.
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Where these numbers come from
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, all items, 1982-84=100
- U.S. Postal Service, Rates for Domestic Letters Since 1863
- U.S. Department of Labor, history of federal minimum wage rates
- U.S. Census Bureau, decennial census resident population
- Presidents and milestones: widely documented public records.