$100 in 1913 is worth $1,621 in 1997,
because prices increased 1521.2% over that period, an average of
3.37% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$1,621
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1521.2%
Average inflation rate
3.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,621
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,521
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1913 → 1997
$1,621
$100 in 1997 → 1913
$6.17
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1997
Between 1913 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1521.2%, which works out to an average of
3.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.06 buys in 1997: the 1913 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 1997 at the same ratio, 16.21: $1,000 becomes
$16,212, and $10,000 becomes $162,121.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1997
$1.00
$16.21
$5.00
$81.06
$10.00
$162
$20.00
$324
$50.00
$811
$100
$1,621
$500
$8,106
$1,000
$16,212
$5,000
$81,061
$10,000
$162,121
$100,000
$1,621,212
$1,000,000
$16,212,121
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1997
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.37%
$1,621
Food
3.33%
$1,573
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 1997
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 1913–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,621
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $270 by
1953, on its way to $1,621 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $1,621; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,621 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1997/