$100 in 1914 is worth $493 in 1974,
because prices increased 393.0% over that period, an average of
2.69% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$493
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
393.0%
Average inflation rate
2.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$493
Price difference ($100 base)
$393
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1914 → 1974
$493
$100 in 1974 → 1914
$20.28
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1974
Between 1914 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 393.0%, which works out to an average of
2.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1974: the 1914 dollar
lost 79.7% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1974 at the same ratio, 4.93: $1,000 becomes
$4,930, and $10,000 becomes $49,300.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1974
$1.00
$4.93
$5.00
$24.65
$10.00
$49.30
$20.00
$98.60
$50.00
$247
$100
$493
$500
$2,465
$1,000
$4,930
$5,000
$24,650
$10,000
$49,300
$100,000
$493,000
$1,000,000
$4,930,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1974
Between 1914 and 1974, food rose the most, up 440.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 362.7%, against 393.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.69%
$493
Food
2.85%
$540
Apparel
2.59%
$463
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 1974
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 1914–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$493
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $176 by
1944, on its way to $493 in 1974; 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: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $493; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1974: $100 is worth $493 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1974/