$100 in 1913 is worth $2,582 in 2019,
because prices increased 2482.4% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$2,582
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2482.4%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,582
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,482
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1913 → 2019
$2,582
$100 in 2019 → 1913
$3.87
What happened to prices between 1913 and 2019
Between 1913 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2482.4%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2019: the 1913 dollar
lost 96.1% of its purchasing power over
these 106 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 2019 at the same ratio, 25.82: $1,000 becomes
$25,824, and $10,000 becomes $258,239.
Amount in 1913
Value in 2019
$1.00
$25.82
$5.00
$129
$10.00
$258
$20.00
$516
$50.00
$1,291
$100
$2,582
$500
$12,912
$1,000
$25,824
$5,000
$129,120
$10,000
$258,239
$100,000
$2,582,394
$1,000,000
$25,823,939
Inflation by spending category, 1913–2019
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$2,582
Food
3.12%
$2,583
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 2019
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 1913–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$2,582
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $352 by
1968, on its way to $2,582 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $2,582; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 2019: $100 is worth $2,582 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2019/