$100 in 1914 is worth $405 in 1971,
because prices increased 305.0% over that period, an average of
2.48% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$405
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
305.0%
Average inflation rate
2.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$405
Price difference ($100 base)
$305
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1914 → 1971
$405
$100 in 1971 → 1914
$24.69
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1971
Between 1914 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 305.0%, which works out to an average of
2.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1971: the 1914 dollar
lost 75.3% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1971 at the same ratio, 4.05: $1,000 becomes
$4,050, and $10,000 becomes $40,500.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1971
$1.00
$4.05
$5.00
$20.25
$10.00
$40.50
$20.00
$81.00
$50.00
$203
$100
$405
$500
$2,025
$1,000
$4,050
$5,000
$20,250
$10,000
$40,500
$100,000
$405,000
$1,000,000
$4,050,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1971
Between 1914 and 1971, apparel rose the most, up 307.3%, while food rose the least, up 296.1%, against 305.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.48%
$405
Apparel
2.49%
$407
Food
2.44%
$396
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 1971
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 1914–1971 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$296
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$388
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$405
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $163 by
1942, on its way to $405 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $405; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1971: $100 is worth $405 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1971/