$100 in 1913 is worth $2,424 in 2016,
because prices increased 2324.3% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$2,424
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2324.3%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,424
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,324
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1913 → 2016
$2,424
$100 in 2016 → 1913
$4.12
What happened to prices between 1913 and 2016
Between 1913 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2324.3%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2016: the 1913 dollar
lost 95.9% of its purchasing power over
these 103 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 2016 at the same ratio, 24.24: $1,000 becomes
$24,243, and $10,000 becomes $242,431.
Amount in 1913
Value in 2016
$1.00
$24.24
$5.00
$121
$10.00
$242
$20.00
$485
$50.00
$1,212
$100
$2,424
$500
$12,122
$1,000
$24,243
$5,000
$121,216
$10,000
$242,431
$100,000
$2,424,313
$1,000,000
$24,243,131
Inflation by spending category, 1913–2016
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$2,424
Food
3.17%
$2,479
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 2016
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 1913–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$2,424
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $309 by
1963, on its way to $2,424 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $2,424; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 2016: $100 is worth $2,424 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2016/