$100 in 1913 is worth $498 in 1974,
because prices increased 398.0% over that period, an average of
2.67% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$498
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
398.0%
Average inflation rate
2.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$498
Price difference ($100 base)
$398
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1913 → 1974
$498
$100 in 1974 → 1913
$20.08
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1974
Between 1913 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 398.0%, which works out to an average of
2.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1974: the 1913 dollar
lost 79.9% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1974 at the same ratio, 4.98: $1,000 becomes
$4,980, and $10,000 becomes $49,798.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1974
$1.00
$4.98
$5.00
$24.90
$10.00
$49.80
$20.00
$99.60
$50.00
$249
$100
$498
$500
$2,490
$1,000
$4,980
$5,000
$24,899
$10,000
$49,798
$100,000
$497,980
$1,000,000
$4,979,798
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1974
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.67%
$498
Food
2.84%
$551
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 1974
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 1913–1974 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$299
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$392
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$498
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $175 by
1943, on its way to $498 in 1974; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $498; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1974: $100 is worth $498 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1974/