$100 in 1914 is worth $996 in 1983,
because prices increased 896.0% over that period, an average of
3.39% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$996
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
896.0%
Average inflation rate
3.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$996
Price difference ($100 base)
$896
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1914 → 1983
$996
$100 in 1983 → 1914
$10.04
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1983
Between 1914 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 896.0%, which works out to an average of
3.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1983: the 1914 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 1983 at the same ratio, 9.96: $1,000 becomes
$9,960, and $10,000 becomes $99,600.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1983
$1.00
$9.96
$5.00
$49.80
$10.00
$99.60
$20.00
$199
$50.00
$498
$100
$996
$500
$4,980
$1,000
$9,960
$5,000
$49,800
$10,000
$99,600
$100,000
$996,000
$1,000,000
$9,960,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1983
Between 1914 and 1983, food rose the most, up 874.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 568.0%, against 896.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.39%
$996
Food
3.35%
$975
Apparel
2.79%
$668
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 1983
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 1914–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$996
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $238 by
1949, on its way to $996 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $996; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1983: $100 is worth $996 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1983/