$100 in 1913 is worth $2,319 in 2012,
because prices increased 2219.1% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$2,319
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2219.1%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,319
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,219
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1913 → 2012
$2,319
$100 in 2012 → 1913
$4.31
What happened to prices between 1913 and 2012
Between 1913 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2219.1%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2012: the 1913 dollar
lost 95.7% of its purchasing power over
these 99 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 2012 at the same ratio, 23.19: $1,000 becomes
$23,191, and $10,000 becomes $231,913.
Amount in 1913
Value in 2012
$1.00
$23.19
$5.00
$116
$10.00
$232
$20.00
$464
$50.00
$1,160
$100
$2,319
$500
$11,596
$1,000
$23,191
$5,000
$115,957
$10,000
$231,913
$100,000
$2,319,131
$1,000,000
$23,191,313
Inflation by spending category, 1913–2012
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$2,319
Food
3.23%
$2,338
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 2012
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 1913–2012 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,739
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$2,203
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$2,319
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $309 by
1963, on its way to $2,319 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $2,319; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 2012: $100 is worth $2,319 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2012/