$100 in 1914 is worth $1,096 in 1986,
because prices increased 996.0% over that period, an average of
3.38% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,096
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
996.0%
Average inflation rate
3.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,096
Price difference ($100 base)
$996
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1914 → 1986
$1,096
$100 in 1986 → 1914
$9.12
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1986
Between 1914 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 996.0%, which works out to an average of
3.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1986: the 1914 dollar
lost 90.9% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 1986 at the same ratio, 10.96: $1,000 becomes
$10,960, and $10,000 becomes $109,600.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1986
$1.00
$10.96
$5.00
$54.80
$10.00
$110
$20.00
$219
$50.00
$548
$100
$1,096
$500
$5,480
$1,000
$10,960
$5,000
$54,800
$10,000
$109,600
$100,000
$1,096,000
$1,000,000
$10,960,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1986
Between 1914 and 1986, food rose the most, up 968.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 606.0%, against 996.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.38%
$1,096
Food
3.34%
$1,069
Apparel
2.75%
$706
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 1986
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 1914–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$1,096
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $238 by
1949, on its way to $1,096 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,096; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1986: $100 is worth $1,096 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1986/