$100 in 1914 is worth $1,362 in 1991,
because prices increased 1262.0% over that period, an average of
3.45% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,362
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1262.0%
Average inflation rate
3.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,362
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,262
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1914 → 1991
$1,362
$100 in 1991 → 1914
$7.34
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1991
Between 1914 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1262.0%, which works out to an average of
3.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1991: the 1914 dollar
lost 92.7% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 1991 at the same ratio, 13.62: $1,000 becomes
$13,620, and $10,000 becomes $136,200.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1991
$1.00
$13.62
$5.00
$68.10
$10.00
$136
$20.00
$272
$50.00
$681
$100
$1,362
$500
$6,810
$1,000
$13,620
$5,000
$68,100
$10,000
$136,200
$100,000
$1,362,000
$1,000,000
$13,620,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1991
Between 1914 and 1991, food rose the most, up 1236.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 758.0%, against 1262.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.45%
$1,362
Food
3.42%
$1,336
Apparel
2.83%
$858
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 1991
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 1914–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,307
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$1,362
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $269 by
1954, on its way to $1,362 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,362; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1991: $100 is worth $1,362 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1991/