$100 in 1913 is worth $1,195 in 1988,
because prices increased 1094.9% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$1,195
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1094.9%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,195
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,095
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1913 → 1988
$1,195
$100 in 1988 → 1913
$8.37
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1988
Between 1913 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1094.9%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1988: the 1913 dollar
lost 91.6% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 1988 at the same ratio, 11.95: $1,000 becomes
$11,949, and $10,000 becomes $119,495.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1988
$1.00
$11.95
$5.00
$59.75
$10.00
$119
$20.00
$239
$50.00
$597
$100
$1,195
$500
$5,975
$1,000
$11,949
$5,000
$59,747
$10,000
$119,495
$100,000
$1,194,949
$1,000,000
$11,949,495
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1988
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$1,195
Food
3.35%
$1,182
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 1988
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 1913–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$1,195
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $243 by
1948, on its way to $1,195 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $1,195; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1988: $100 is worth $1,195 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1988/