$100 in 1913 is worth $1,376 in 1991,
because prices increased 1275.8% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$1,376
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1275.8%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,376
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,276
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1913 → 1991
$1,376
$100 in 1991 → 1913
$7.27
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1991
Between 1913 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1275.8%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1991: the 1913 dollar
lost 92.7% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 1991 at the same ratio, 13.76: $1,000 becomes
$13,758, and $10,000 becomes $137,576.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1991
$1.00
$13.76
$5.00
$68.79
$10.00
$138
$20.00
$275
$50.00
$688
$100
$1,376
$500
$6,879
$1,000
$13,758
$5,000
$68,788
$10,000
$137,576
$100,000
$1,375,758
$1,000,000
$13,757,576
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1991
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$1,376
Food
3.41%
$1,363
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 1991
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 1913–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,320
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$1,376
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $270 by
1953, on its way to $1,376 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $1,376; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1991: $100 is worth $1,376 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1991/