$100 in 1914 is worth $909 in 1981,
because prices increased 809.0% over that period, an average of
3.35% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$909
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
809.0%
Average inflation rate
3.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$909
Price difference ($100 base)
$809
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1914 → 1981
$909
$100 in 1981 → 1914
$11.00
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1981
Between 1914 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 809.0%, which works out to an average of
3.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1981: the 1914 dollar
lost 89.0% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 1981 at the same ratio, 9.09: $1,000 becomes
$9,090, and $10,000 becomes $90,900.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1981
$1.00
$9.09
$5.00
$45.45
$10.00
$90.90
$20.00
$182
$50.00
$455
$100
$909
$500
$4,545
$1,000
$9,090
$5,000
$45,450
$10,000
$90,900
$100,000
$909,000
$1,000,000
$9,090,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1981
Between 1914 and 1981, food rose the most, up 817.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 535.3%, against 809.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.35%
$909
Food
3.36%
$918
Apparel
2.80%
$635
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 1981
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 1914–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$824
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$909
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $238 by
1949, on its way to $909 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $909; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1981: $100 is worth $909 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1981/