$100 in 1914 is worth $241 in 1948,
because prices increased 141.0% over that period, an average of
2.62% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$241
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
141.0%
Average inflation rate
2.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$241
Price difference ($100 base)
$141
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1914 → 1948
$241
$100 in 1948 → 1914
$41.49
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1948
Between 1914 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 141.0%, which works out to an average of
2.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1948: the 1914 dollar
lost 58.5% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1948 at the same ratio, 2.41: $1,000 becomes
$2,410, and $10,000 becomes $24,100.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1948
$1.00
$2.41
$5.00
$12.05
$10.00
$24.10
$20.00
$48.20
$50.00
$121
$100
$241
$500
$1,205
$1,000
$2,410
$5,000
$12,050
$10,000
$24,100
$100,000
$241,000
$1,000,000
$2,410,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1948
Between 1914 and 1948, apparel rose the most, up 183.3%, while food rose the least, up 155.9%, against 141.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.62%
$241
Apparel
3.11%
$283
Food
2.80%
$256
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 1948
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 1914–1948 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
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$241
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $167 by
1930, on its way to $241 in 1948; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1948
In 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $241; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1948: $100 is worth $241 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1948/