$100 in 1913 is worth $3,078 in 2023,
because prices increased 2977.8% over that period, an average of
3.16% a year.
$100 in 1913 has
the same buying power as
$3,078
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2977.8%
Average inflation rate
3.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$3,078
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,978
CPI in 1913
9.9
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1913
n/a
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1913 → 2023
$3,078
$100 in 2023 → 1913
$3.25
What happened to prices between 1913 and 2023
Between 1913 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 9.9 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2977.8%, which works out to an average of
3.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1913 bought what
$0.03 buys in 2023: the 1913 dollar
lost 96.8% of its purchasing power over
these 110 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 2023 at the same ratio, 30.78: $1,000 becomes
$30,778, and $10,000 becomes $307,780.
Amount in 1913
Value in 2023
$1.00
$30.78
$5.00
$154
$10.00
$308
$20.00
$616
$50.00
$1,539
$100
$3,078
$500
$15,389
$1,000
$30,778
$5,000
$153,890
$10,000
$307,780
$100,000
$3,077,798
$1,000,000
$30,777,980
Inflation by spending category, 1913–2023
The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1913
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1913 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.16%
$3,078
Food
3.21%
$3,230
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 2023
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 1913–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$2,614
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$3,078
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1913
$100 from 1913 had already become $352 by
1968, on its way to $3,078 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1913 had the buying
power of $3,078; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1913 to 2023: $100 is worth $3,078 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1913 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1913-to-2023/