$100 in 1913 is worth $1,417 in 1992,
because prices increased 1317.2% over that period, an average of
3.41% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$1,417
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1317.2%
Average inflation rate
3.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,417
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,317
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1913 → 1992
$1,417
$100 in 1992 → 1913
$7.06
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1992
Between 1913 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1317.2%, which works out to an average of
3.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1992: the 1913 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 1992 at the same ratio, 14.17: $1,000 becomes
$14,172, and $10,000 becomes $141,717.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1992
$1.00
$14.17
$5.00
$70.86
$10.00
$142
$20.00
$283
$50.00
$709
$100
$1,417
$500
$7,086
$1,000
$14,172
$5,000
$70,859
$10,000
$141,717
$100,000
$1,417,172
$1,000,000
$14,171,717
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1992
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.41%
$1,417
Food
3.38%
$1,379
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 1992
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 1913–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$1,417
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $270 by
1953, on its way to $1,417 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $1,417; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1992: $100 is worth $1,417 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1992/