$100 in 1913 is worth $263 in 1951,
because prices increased 162.6% over that period, an average of
2.57% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$263
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
162.6%
Average inflation rate
2.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$263
Price difference ($100 base)
$163
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1913 → 1951
$263
$100 in 1951 → 1913
$38.08
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1951
Between 1913 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 162.6%, which works out to an average of
2.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1951: the 1913 dollar
lost 61.9% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1951 at the same ratio, 2.63: $1,000 becomes
$2,626, and $10,000 becomes $26,263.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1951
$1.00
$2.63
$5.00
$13.13
$10.00
$26.26
$20.00
$52.53
$50.00
$131
$100
$263
$500
$1,313
$1,000
$2,626
$5,000
$13,131
$10,000
$26,263
$100,000
$262,626
$1,000,000
$2,626,263
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1951
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.57%
$263
Food
2.77%
$282
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 1951
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 1913–1951 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
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$263
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $154 by
1931, on its way to $263 in 1951; 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: 1951
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $263; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1951: $100 is worth $263 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1951/