$100 in 1914 is worth $267 in 1953,
because prices increased 167.0% over that period, an average of
2.55% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$267
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
167.0%
Average inflation rate
2.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$267
Price difference ($100 base)
$167
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1914 → 1953
$267
$100 in 1953 → 1914
$37.45
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1953
Between 1914 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 167.0%, which works out to an average of
2.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1953: the 1914 dollar
lost 62.5% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1953 at the same ratio, 2.67: $1,000 becomes
$2,670, and $10,000 becomes $26,700.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1953
$1.00
$2.67
$5.00
$13.35
$10.00
$26.70
$20.00
$53.40
$50.00
$134
$100
$267
$500
$1,335
$1,000
$2,670
$5,000
$13,350
$10,000
$26,700
$100,000
$267,000
$1,000,000
$2,670,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1953
Between 1914 and 1953, apparel rose the most, up 187.3%, while food rose the least, up 177.5%, against 167.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.55%
$267
Apparel
2.74%
$287
Food
2.65%
$277
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 1953
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 1914–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$267
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $134 by
1934, on its way to $267 in 1953; 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: 1953
In 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $267; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $267 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1953/