$100 in 1913 is worth $918 in 1981,
because prices increased 818.2% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$918
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
818.2%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$918
Price difference ($100 base)
$818
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1913 → 1981
$918
$100 in 1981 → 1913
$10.89
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1981
Between 1913 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 818.2%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1981: the 1913 dollar
lost 89.1% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1981 at the same ratio, 9.18: $1,000 becomes
$9,182, and $10,000 becomes $91,818.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1981
$1.00
$9.18
$5.00
$45.91
$10.00
$91.82
$20.00
$184
$50.00
$459
$100
$918
$500
$4,591
$1,000
$9,182
$5,000
$45,909
$10,000
$91,818
$100,000
$918,182
$1,000,000
$9,181,818
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1981
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$918
Food
3.34%
$936
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 1981
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 1913–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$832
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$918
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $243 by
1948, on its way to $918 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $918; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1981: $100 is worth $918 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1981/