$100 in 1913 is worth $272 in 1954,
because prices increased 171.7% over that period, an average of
2.47% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$272
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
171.7%
Average inflation rate
2.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$272
Price difference ($100 base)
$172
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1913 → 1954
$272
$100 in 1954 → 1913
$36.80
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1954
Between 1913 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 171.7%, which works out to an average of
2.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1954: the 1913 dollar
lost 63.2% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1954 at the same ratio, 2.72: $1,000 becomes
$2,717, and $10,000 becomes $27,172.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1954
$1.00
$2.72
$5.00
$13.59
$10.00
$27.17
$20.00
$54.34
$50.00
$136
$100
$272
$500
$1,359
$1,000
$2,717
$5,000
$13,586
$10,000
$27,172
$100,000
$271,717
$1,000,000
$2,717,172
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1954
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.47%
$272
Food
2.56%
$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 1954
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 1913–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$272
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $131 by
1933, on its way to $272 in 1954; 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: 1954
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $272; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1954: $100 is worth $272 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1954/