$100 in 1914 is worth $1,183 in 1988,
because prices increased 1083.0% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,183
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1083.0%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,183
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,083
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1914 → 1988
$1,183
$100 in 1988 → 1914
$8.45
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1988
Between 1914 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1083.0%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1988: the 1914 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 1988 at the same ratio, 11.83: $1,000 becomes
$11,830, and $10,000 becomes $118,300.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1988
$1.00
$11.83
$5.00
$59.15
$10.00
$118
$20.00
$237
$50.00
$592
$100
$1,183
$500
$5,915
$1,000
$11,830
$5,000
$59,150
$10,000
$118,300
$100,000
$1,183,000
$1,000,000
$11,830,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1988
Between 1914 and 1988, food rose the most, up 1058.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 669.3%, against 1083.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$1,183
Food
3.37%
$1,159
Apparel
2.80%
$769
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 1988
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 1914–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$1,183
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $238 by
1949, on its way to $1,183 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,183; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1988: $100 is worth $1,183 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1988/