$100 in 1913 is worth $2,536 in 2018,
because prices increased 2436.4% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$2,536
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2436.4%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,536
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,436
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1913 → 2018
$2,536
$100 in 2018 → 1913
$3.94
What happened to prices between 1913 and 2018
Between 1913 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2436.4%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2018: the 1913 dollar
lost 96.1% of its purchasing power over
these 105 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 2018 at the same ratio, 25.36: $1,000 becomes
$25,364, and $10,000 becomes $253,643.
Amount in 1913
Value in 2018
$1.00
$25.36
$5.00
$127
$10.00
$254
$20.00
$507
$50.00
$1,268
$100
$2,536
$500
$12,682
$1,000
$25,364
$5,000
$126,822
$10,000
$253,643
$100,000
$2,536,434
$1,000,000
$25,364,343
Inflation by spending category, 1913–2018
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$2,536
Food
3.13%
$2,536
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 2018
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 1913–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$2,536
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $309 by
1963, on its way to $2,536 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $2,536; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 2018: $100 is worth $2,536 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2018/