$100 in 1914 is worth $130 in 1933,
because prices increased 30.0% over that period, an average of
1.39% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$130
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
30.0%
Average inflation rate
1.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$130
Price difference ($100 base)
$30.00
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1914 → 1933
$130
$100 in 1933 → 1914
$76.92
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1933
Between 1914 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices increased 30.0%, which works out to an average of
1.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1933: the 1914 dollar
lost 23.1% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1933 at the same ratio, 1.30: $1,000 becomes
$1,300, and $10,000 becomes $13,000.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1933
$1.00
$1.30
$5.00
$6.50
$10.00
$13.00
$20.00
$26.00
$50.00
$65.00
$100
$130
$500
$650
$1,000
$1,300
$5,000
$6,500
$10,000
$13,000
$100,000
$130,000
$1,000,000
$1,300,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1933
Between 1914 and 1933, apparel rose the most, up 25.3%, while food rose the least, up 2.0%, against 30.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.39%
$130
Apparel
1.20%
$125
Food
0.10%
$102
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 1933
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1933 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$167
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$130
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $171 by
1923, on its way to $130 in 1933; 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 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $130; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1933: $100 is worth $130 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1933/