$100 in 1914 is worth $1,403 in 1992,
because prices increased 1303.0% over that period, an average of
3.44% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,403
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1303.0%
Average inflation rate
3.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,403
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,303
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1914 → 1992
$1,403
$100 in 1992 → 1914
$7.13
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1992
Between 1914 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1303.0%, which works out to an average of
3.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1992: the 1914 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 1992 at the same ratio, 14.03: $1,000 becomes
$14,030, and $10,000 becomes $140,300.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1992
$1.00
$14.03
$5.00
$70.15
$10.00
$140
$20.00
$281
$50.00
$702
$100
$1,403
$500
$7,015
$1,000
$14,030
$5,000
$70,150
$10,000
$140,300
$100,000
$1,403,000
$1,000,000
$14,030,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1992
Between 1914 and 1992, food rose the most, up 1252.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 779.3%, against 1303.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.44%
$1,403
Food
3.40%
$1,352
Apparel
2.83%
$879
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 1992
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 1914–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$1,403
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $269 by
1954, on its way to $1,403 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,403; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1992: $100 is worth $1,403 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1992/