$100 in 1914 is worth $241 in 1950,
because prices increased 141.0% over that period, an average of
2.47% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$241
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
141.0%
Average inflation rate
2.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$241
Price difference ($100 base)
$141
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1914 → 1950
$241
$100 in 1950 → 1914
$41.49
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1950
Between 1914 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 141.0%, which works out to an average of
2.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1950: the 1914 dollar
lost 58.5% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1950 at the same ratio, 2.41: $1,000 becomes
$2,410, and $10,000 becomes $24,100.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1950
$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, 1914–1950
Between 1914 and 1950, apparel rose the most, up 168.7%, while food rose the least, up 149.0%, against 141.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.47%
$241
Apparel
2.78%
$269
Food
2.57%
$249
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 1950
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 1914–1950 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$241
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $137 by
1932, on its way to $241 in 1950; 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: 1950
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $241; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1950: $100 is worth $241 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1950/