$100 in 1913 is worth $1,646 in 1998,
because prices increased 1546.5% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$1,646
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1546.5%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,646
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,546
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1913 → 1998
$1,646
$100 in 1998 → 1913
$6.07
What happened to prices between 1913 and 1998
Between 1913 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1546.5%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.06 buys in 1998: the 1913 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 1998 at the same ratio, 16.46: $1,000 becomes
$16,465, and $10,000 becomes $164,646.
Amount in 1913
Value in 1998
$1.00
$16.46
$5.00
$82.32
$10.00
$165
$20.00
$329
$50.00
$823
$100
$1,646
$500
$8,232
$1,000
$16,465
$5,000
$82,323
$10,000
$164,646
$100,000
$1,646,465
$1,000,000
$16,464,646
Inflation by spending category, 1913–1998
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$1,646
Food
3.32%
$1,607
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 1998
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 1913–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$1,646
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $270 by
1953, on its way to $1,646 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $1,646; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 1998: $100 is worth $1,646 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-1998/