$100 in 1914 is worth $269 in 1954,
because prices increased 169.0% over that period, an average of
2.50% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$269
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
169.0%
Average inflation rate
2.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$269
Price difference ($100 base)
$169
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1914 → 1954
$269
$100 in 1954 → 1914
$37.17
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1954
Between 1914 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 169.0%, which works out to an average of
2.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1954: the 1914 dollar
lost 62.8% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1954 at the same ratio, 2.69: $1,000 becomes
$2,690, and $10,000 becomes $26,900.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1954
$1.00
$2.69
$5.00
$13.45
$10.00
$26.90
$20.00
$53.80
$50.00
$135
$100
$269
$500
$1,345
$1,000
$2,690
$5,000
$13,450
$10,000
$26,900
$100,000
$269,000
$1,000,000
$2,690,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1954
Between 1914 and 1954, apparel rose the most, up 187.3%, while food rose the least, up 176.5%, against 169.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.50%
$269
Apparel
2.67%
$287
Food
2.57%
$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 1954
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 1914–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$269
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $134 by
1934, on its way to $269 in 1954; 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: 1954
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $269; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1954: $100 is worth $269 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1954/