$100 in 1913 is worth $165 in 1942,
because prices increased 64.6% over that period, an average of
1.73% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$165
in 1942
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
64.6%
Average inflation rate
1.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$165
Price difference ($100 base)
$64.65
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1942
16.3
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
$100 in 1913 → 1942
$165
$100 in 1942 → 1913
$60.74
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1942
Between 1913 and 1942, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 16.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 64.6%, which works out to an average of
1.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1942: the 1913 dollar
lost 39.3% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1942 at the same ratio, 1.65: $1,000 becomes
$1,646, and $10,000 becomes $16,465.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1942
$1.00
$1.65
$5.00
$8.23
$10.00
$16.46
$20.00
$32.93
$50.00
$82.32
$100
$165
$500
$823
$1,000
$1,646
$5,000
$8,232
$10,000
$16,465
$100,000
$164,646
$1,000,000
$1,646,465
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1942
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1942, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.73%
$165
Food
1.50%
$154
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 1942
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 10.57% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1913–1942 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
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$141
1940–1942
7.90%
16.4%
$165
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $176 by
1927, on its way to $165 in 1942; 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 1942, prices rose 10.9% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $165; the year's average CPI of 16.3 is the level
behind every 1942 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1942: $100 is worth $165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1942/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1942. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1942/