$100 in 1913 is worth $292 in 1958,
because prices increased 191.9% over that period, an average of
2.41% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$292
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
191.9%
Average inflation rate
2.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$292
Price difference ($100 base)
$192
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1913 → 1958
$292
$100 in 1958 → 1913
$34.26
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1958
Between 1913 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 191.9%, which works out to an average of
2.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1958: the 1913 dollar
lost 65.7% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1958 at the same ratio, 2.92: $1,000 becomes
$2,919, and $10,000 becomes $29,192.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1958
$1.00
$2.92
$5.00
$14.60
$10.00
$29.19
$20.00
$58.38
$50.00
$146
$100
$292
$500
$1,460
$1,000
$2,919
$5,000
$14,596
$10,000
$29,192
$100,000
$291,919
$1,000,000
$2,919,192
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1958
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.41%
$292
Food
2.49%
$302
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 1958
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 1913–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$292
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $138 by
1935, on its way to $292 in 1958; 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: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $292; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1958: $100 is worth $292 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1958/