$100 in 1914 is worth $1,569 in 1996,
because prices increased 1469.0% over that period, an average of
3.41% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,569
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1469.0%
Average inflation rate
3.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,569
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,469
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1914 → 1996
$1,569
$100 in 1996 → 1914
$6.37
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1996
Between 1914 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1469.0%, which works out to an average of
3.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.06 buys in 1996: the 1914 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 1996 at the same ratio, 15.69: $1,000 becomes
$15,690, and $10,000 becomes $156,900.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1996
$1.00
$15.69
$5.00
$78.45
$10.00
$157
$20.00
$314
$50.00
$785
$100
$1,569
$500
$7,845
$1,000
$15,690
$5,000
$78,450
$10,000
$156,900
$100,000
$1,569,000
$1,000,000
$15,690,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1996
Between 1914 and 1996, food rose the most, up 1402.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 778.0%, against 1469.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.41%
$1,569
Food
3.36%
$1,503
Apparel
2.68%
$878
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 1996
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 1914–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,569
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $269 by
1954, on its way to $1,569 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,569; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,569 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1996/