$100 in 1913 is worth $1,147 in 1987,
because prices increased 1047.5% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$1,147
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1047.5%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,147
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,047
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1913 → 1987
$1,147
$100 in 1987 → 1913
$8.71
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1987
Between 1913 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1047.5%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1987: the 1913 dollar
lost 91.3% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 1987 at the same ratio, 11.47: $1,000 becomes
$11,475, and $10,000 becomes $114,747.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1987
$1.00
$11.47
$5.00
$57.37
$10.00
$115
$20.00
$229
$50.00
$574
$100
$1,147
$500
$5,737
$1,000
$11,475
$5,000
$57,374
$10,000
$114,747
$100,000
$1,147,475
$1,000,000
$11,474,747
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1987
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$1,147
Food
3.34%
$1,135
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 1987
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 1913–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$1,147
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $243 by
1948, on its way to $1,147 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $1,147; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1987: $100 is worth $1,147 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1987/