$100 in 1913 is worth $1,107 in 1986,
because prices increased 1007.1% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$1,107
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1007.1%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,107
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,007
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1913 → 1986
$1,107
$100 in 1986 → 1913
$9.03
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1986
Between 1913 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1007.1%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1986: the 1913 dollar
lost 91.0% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 1986 at the same ratio, 11.07: $1,000 becomes
$11,071, and $10,000 becomes $110,707.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1986
$1.00
$11.07
$5.00
$55.35
$10.00
$111
$20.00
$221
$50.00
$554
$100
$1,107
$500
$5,535
$1,000
$11,071
$5,000
$55,354
$10,000
$110,707
$100,000
$1,107,071
$1,000,000
$11,070,707
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1986
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$1,107
Food
3.33%
$1,090
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 1986
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 1913–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$1,107
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $243 by
1948, on its way to $1,107 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $1,107; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1986: $100 is worth $1,107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1986/