$100 in 1914 is worth $168 in 1922,
because prices increased 68.0% over that period, an average of
6.70% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$168
in 1922
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
68.0%
Average inflation rate
6.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$168
Price difference ($100 base)
$68.00
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1922
16.8
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
$100 in 1914 → 1922
$168
$100 in 1922 → 1914
$59.52
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1922
Between 1914 and 1922, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 16.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 68.0%, which works out to an average of
6.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1922: the 1914 dollar
lost 40.5% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1922 at the same ratio, 1.68: $1,000 becomes
$1,680, and $10,000 becomes $16,800.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1922
$1.00
$1.68
$5.00
$8.40
$10.00
$16.80
$20.00
$33.60
$50.00
$84.00
$100
$168
$500
$840
$1,000
$1,680
$5,000
$8,400
$10,000
$16,800
$100,000
$168,000
$1,000,000
$1,680,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1922
Between 1914 and 1922, apparel rose the most, up 80.0%, while food rose the least, up 46.1%, against 68.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1922, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
6.70%
$168
Apparel
7.62%
$180
Food
4.85%
$146
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 1922
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (8.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1922 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1922
-8.35%
-16.0%
$168
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $151 by
1918, on its way to $168 in 1922; 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 1922, prices fell 6.1% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $168; the year's average CPI of 16.8 is the level
behind every 1922 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1922: $100 is worth $168 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1922/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1922. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1922/