$100 in 1914 is worth $569 in 1976,
because prices increased 469.0% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$569
in 1976
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
469.0%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$569
Price difference ($100 base)
$469
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1976
56.9
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1976
5.76%
$100 in 1914 → 1976
$569
$100 in 1976 → 1914
$17.57
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1976
Between 1914 and 1976, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 56.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 469.0%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1976: the 1914 dollar
lost 82.4% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1976 at the same ratio, 5.69: $1,000 becomes
$5,690, and $10,000 becomes $56,900.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1976
$1.00
$5.69
$5.00
$28.45
$10.00
$56.90
$20.00
$114
$50.00
$285
$100
$569
$500
$2,845
$1,000
$5,690
$5,000
$28,450
$10,000
$56,900
$100,000
$569,000
$1,000,000
$5,690,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1976
Between 1914 and 1976, food rose the most, up 503.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 401.3%, against 469.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1976, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$569
Food
2.94%
$604
Apparel
2.63%
$501
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 1976
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 1914–1976 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
1970–1976
6.59%
46.6%
$569
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $176 by
1944, on its way to $569 in 1976; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1976
In 1976, prices rose 5.8% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $569; the year's average CPI of 56.9 is the level
behind every 1976 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.8% in 1976, the calmest pace since 1972,
as the economy pulled out of the 1973-75 recession and price growth settled
to roughly half its 1974 peak. The recovery gave Americans
room to celebrate: tall ships filled New York Harbor and fireworks lit cities
nationwide on July 4 for the country’s bicentennial, a rare moment of shared
celebration after Vietnam and Watergate. Politically, Jimmy Carter, a former
Georgia governor running as a Washington outsider, defeated incumbent Gerald
Ford that November, campaigning on restoring trust in government and bringing
down inflation and unemployment together. In a California garage, Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne founded Apple Computer that April to
sell the Apple I, a bare circuit board aimed at electronics hobbyists, a
business that looked far from consequential at the time. First-class
postage, which had risen to 13 cents that past December 31, held there
through the year, the longest stretch without a rate change since the Postal
Service’s creation. A median household earned $12,686 in 1976, a new home
sold for a median $44,200, and gas averaged 59 cents a gallon. Consumer
prices stood 474.7% above their 1913 level, a calm interlude
before inflation turned back up.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1976: $100 is worth $569 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1976/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1976. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1976/