$100 in 1914 is worth $139 in 1936,
because prices increased 39.0% over that period, an average of
1.51% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.0%
Average inflation rate
1.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.00
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1914 → 1936
$139
$100 in 1936 → 1914
$71.94
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1936
Between 1914 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.0%, which works out to an average of
1.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1936: the 1914 dollar
lost 28.1% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1936 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,390, and $10,000 becomes $13,900.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1936
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.95
$10.00
$13.90
$20.00
$27.80
$50.00
$69.50
$100
$139
$500
$695
$1,000
$1,390
$5,000
$6,950
$10,000
$13,900
$100,000
$139,000
$1,000,000
$1,390,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1936
Between 1914 and 1936, apparel rose the most, up 40.0%, while food rose the least, up 23.5%, against 39.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.51%
$139
Apparel
1.54%
$140
Food
0.97%
$124
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 1936
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1936 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
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $175 by
1925, on its way to $139 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1936: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1936/