$100 in 1913 is worth $612 in 1977,
because prices increased 512.1% over that period, an average of
2.87% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$612
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
512.1%
Average inflation rate
2.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$612
Price difference ($100 base)
$512
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1913 → 1977
$612
$100 in 1977 → 1913
$16.34
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1977
Between 1913 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 512.1%, which works out to an average of
2.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1977: the 1913 dollar
lost 83.7% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 1977 at the same ratio, 6.12: $1,000 becomes
$6,121, and $10,000 becomes $61,212.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1977
$1.00
$6.12
$5.00
$30.61
$10.00
$61.21
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$306
$100
$612
$500
$3,061
$1,000
$6,121
$5,000
$30,606
$10,000
$61,212
$100,000
$612,121
$1,000,000
$6,121,212
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1977
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.87%
$612
Food
2.98%
$655
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 1977
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 1913–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$612
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $175 by
1943, on its way to $612 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $612; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1977: $100 is worth $612 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1977/