$100 in 1913 is worth $243 in 1950,
because prices increased 143.4% over that period, an average of
2.43% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$243
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
143.4%
Average inflation rate
2.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$243
Price difference ($100 base)
$143
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1913 → 1950
$243
$100 in 1950 → 1913
$41.08
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1950
Between 1913 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 143.4%, which works out to an average of
2.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1950: the 1913 dollar
lost 58.9% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1950 at the same ratio, 2.43: $1,000 becomes
$2,434, and $10,000 becomes $24,343.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1950
$1.00
$2.43
$5.00
$12.17
$10.00
$24.34
$20.00
$48.69
$50.00
$122
$100
$243
$500
$1,217
$1,000
$2,434
$5,000
$12,172
$10,000
$24,343
$100,000
$243,434
$1,000,000
$2,434,343
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1950
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.43%
$243
Food
2.55%
$254
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 1950
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 1913–1950 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$243
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $154 by
1931, on its way to $243 in 1950; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1950
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $243; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1950: $100 is worth $243 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1950/