$100 in 1913 is worth $138 in 1932,
because prices increased 38.4% over that period, an average of
1.72% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
38.4%
Average inflation rate
1.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$38.38
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1913 → 1932
$138
$100 in 1932 → 1913
$72.26
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1932
Between 1913 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 38.4%, which works out to an average of
1.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1932: the 1913 dollar
lost 27.7% of its purchasing power over
these 19 years.
1913 is where this site’s price history begins, because it’s where the Bureau of Labor
Statistics’ own consumer price data begins. The CPI wasn’t published in real time back then;
the BLS built the earliest index retroactively from retail price records collected starting
in 1913, which makes every dollar figure on this site ultimately anchored to that year’s
prices. It was also the year the machinery of modern federal economic policy was built. The
16th Amendment, ratified in February, cleared the constitutional path for a federal income
tax, and the Revenue Act that followed in October imposed a top rate of just 7% on income
above $500,000, a narrow tax that would later be reshaped into the broad-based system that
funds the government today. In December, Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act, creating
the central bank that would eventually take on fighting inflation as one of its core jobs,
including the 19%-plus interest rates it deployed against the 1970s and early 1980s
price surge. Consumer life in 1913 was correspondingly simple by later
standards: a first-class stamp cost 2 cents, a price that held from 1885 all the way to
1917, and the Ford Motor Company introduced the moving assembly line at its Highland Park
plant that year, a manufacturing breakthrough that would spend the next decade driving down
the cost of a car faster than prices elsewhere were rising.
Every 1913 amount converts to 1932 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,384, and $10,000 becomes $13,838.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1932
$1.00
$1.38
$5.00
$6.92
$10.00
$13.84
$20.00
$27.68
$50.00
$69.19
$100
$138
$500
$692
$1,000
$1,384
$5,000
$6,919
$10,000
$13,838
$100,000
$138,384
$1,000,000
$1,383,838
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1932
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.72%
$138
Food
0.36%
$107
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1913: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), apparel (1914–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1913 to 1932
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 10.57% a year, and fell in the 1930s (9.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1913–1932 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1913, at end
1913–1920
10.57%
102.0%
$202
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$169
1930–1932
-9.43%
-18.0%
$138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $170 by
1922, on its way to $138 in 1932; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1932: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1932/