$100 in 1914 is worth $179 in 1921,
because prices increased 79.0% over that period, an average of
8.67% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$179
in 1921
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
79.0%
Average inflation rate
8.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$179
Price difference ($100 base)
$79.00
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1921
17.9
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
$100 in 1914 → 1921
$179
$100 in 1921 → 1914
$55.87
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1921
Between 1914 and 1921, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 17.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 79.0%, which works out to an average of
8.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1921: the 1914 dollar
lost 44.1% of its purchasing power over
these 7 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1921 at the same ratio, 1.79: $1,000 becomes
$1,790, and $10,000 becomes $17,900.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1921
$1.00
$1.79
$5.00
$8.95
$10.00
$17.90
$20.00
$35.80
$50.00
$89.50
$100
$179
$500
$895
$1,000
$1,790
$5,000
$8,950
$10,000
$17,900
$100,000
$179,000
$1,000,000
$1,790,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1921
Between 1914 and 1921, apparel rose the most, up 121.3%, while food rose the least, up 55.9%, against 79.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1921, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
8.67%
$179
Apparel
12.02%
$221
Food
6.55%
$156
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1921
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (10.5% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1921 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1921
-10.50%
-10.5%
$179
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $128 by
1917, on its way to $179 in 1921; 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.
In 1921, prices fell 10.5% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $179; the year's average CPI of 17.9 is the level
behind every 1921 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the mirror image of the wartime
inflation that had more than doubled the cost of living between
1913 and 1920. The Depression of 1920-21, one
of the sharpest contractions in U.S. history, bottomed out that July
according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, even though it had
lasted barely eighteen months. Unemployment climbed toward one worker in ten
as businesses cut production and prices to work through wartime inventories,
but the same collapse in prices also meant the recovery, once it started,
had room to run without reigniting inflation. Warren Harding took office
March 4, promising a return to “normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic,
labor unrest, and rapid price swings; his administration moved quickly to
cut top income tax rates and federal spending. Congress also acted on
immigration that year: the Emergency Quota Act, signed May 19, capped annual
arrivals from each country at 3% of that nationality’s population in the
1910 census, the first time the United States had set a numerical ceiling on
immigration. The law favored northern and western Europe and cut total
immigration by more than half compared with prewar levels; Congress
tightened the formula again in 1924. First-class postage held at 2 cents,
unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1921: $100 is worth $179 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1921/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1921. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1921/