$100 in 1914 is worth $444 in 1973,
because prices increased 344.0% over that period, an average of
2.56% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$444
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
344.0%
Average inflation rate
2.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$444
Price difference ($100 base)
$344
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1914 → 1973
$444
$100 in 1973 → 1914
$22.52
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1973
Between 1914 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 344.0%, which works out to an average of
2.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.23 buys in 1973: the 1914 dollar
lost 77.5% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1973 at the same ratio, 4.44: $1,000 becomes
$4,440, and $10,000 becomes $44,400.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1973
$1.00
$4.44
$5.00
$22.20
$10.00
$44.40
$20.00
$88.80
$50.00
$222
$100
$444
$500
$2,220
$1,000
$4,440
$5,000
$22,200
$10,000
$44,400
$100,000
$444,000
$1,000,000
$4,440,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1973
Between 1914 and 1973, food rose the most, up 372.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 330.7%, against 344.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.56%
$444
Food
2.67%
$473
Apparel
2.51%
$431
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 1973
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 1914–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$444
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $176 by
1944, on its way to $444 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $444; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1973: $100 is worth $444 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1973/