$100 in 1914 is worth $726 in 1979,
because prices increased 626.0% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$726
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
626.0%
Average inflation rate
3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$726
Price difference ($100 base)
$626
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1914 → 1979
$726
$100 in 1979 → 1914
$13.77
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1979
Between 1914 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 626.0%, which works out to an average of
3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1979: the 1914 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1979 at the same ratio, 7.26: $1,000 becomes
$7,260, and $10,000 becomes $72,600.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1979
$1.00
$7.26
$5.00
$36.30
$10.00
$72.60
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$363
$100
$726
$500
$3,630
$1,000
$7,260
$5,000
$36,300
$10,000
$72,600
$100,000
$726,000
$1,000,000
$7,260,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1979
Between 1914 and 1979, food rose the most, up 683.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 466.0%, against 626.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.10%
$726
Food
3.22%
$783
Apparel
2.70%
$566
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 1979
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 1914–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$726
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $176 by
1944, on its way to $726 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $726; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1979: $100 is worth $726 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1979/