$100 in 1914 is worth $260 in 1951,
because prices increased 160.0% over that period, an average of
2.62% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$260
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
160.0%
Average inflation rate
2.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$260
Price difference ($100 base)
$160
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1914 → 1951
$260
$100 in 1951 → 1914
$38.46
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1951
Between 1914 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 160.0%, which works out to an average of
2.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1951: the 1914 dollar
lost 61.5% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1951 at the same ratio, 2.60: $1,000 becomes
$2,600, and $10,000 becomes $26,000.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1951
$1.00
$2.60
$5.00
$13.00
$10.00
$26.00
$20.00
$52.00
$50.00
$130
$100
$260
$500
$1,300
$1,000
$2,600
$5,000
$13,000
$10,000
$26,000
$100,000
$260,000
$1,000,000
$2,600,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1951
Between 1914 and 1951, apparel rose the most, up 192.7%, while food rose the least, up 176.5%, against 160.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.62%
$260
Apparel
2.94%
$293
Food
2.79%
$276
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 1951
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 1914–1951 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
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$260
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $137 by
1932, on its way to $260 in 1951; 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: 1951
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $260; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1951: $100 is worth $260 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1951/