$100 in 1914 is worth $147 in 1941,
because prices increased 47.0% over that period, an average of
1.44% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$147
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
47.0%
Average inflation rate
1.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$147
Price difference ($100 base)
$47.00
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1914 → 1941
$147
$100 in 1941 → 1914
$68.03
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1941
Between 1914 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 47.0%, which works out to an average of
1.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.68 buys in 1941: the 1914 dollar
lost 32.0% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1941 at the same ratio, 1.47: $1,000 becomes
$1,470, and $10,000 becomes $14,700.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1941
$1.00
$1.47
$5.00
$7.35
$10.00
$14.70
$20.00
$29.40
$50.00
$73.50
$100
$147
$500
$735
$1,000
$1,470
$5,000
$7,350
$10,000
$14,700
$100,000
$147,000
$1,000,000
$1,470,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1941
Between 1914 and 1941, apparel rose the most, up 52.0%, while food rose the least, up 28.4%, against 47.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.44%
$147
Apparel
1.56%
$152
Food
0.93%
$128
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 1941
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1941 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
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$140
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$147
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $174 by
1927, on its way to $147 in 1941; 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 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $147; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1941: $100 is worth $147 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1941/