$100 in 1914 is worth $1,605 in 1997,
because prices increased 1505.0% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,605
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1505.0%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,605
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,505
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1914 → 1997
$1,605
$100 in 1997 → 1914
$6.23
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1997
Between 1914 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1505.0%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.06 buys in 1997: the 1914 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 1997 at the same ratio, 16.05: $1,000 becomes
$16,050, and $10,000 becomes $160,500.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1997
$1.00
$16.05
$5.00
$80.25
$10.00
$161
$20.00
$321
$50.00
$803
$100
$1,605
$500
$8,025
$1,000
$16,050
$5,000
$80,250
$10,000
$160,500
$100,000
$1,605,000
$1,000,000
$16,050,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1997
Between 1914 and 1997, food rose the most, up 1442.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 786.0%, against 1505.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$1,605
Food
3.35%
$1,542
Apparel
2.66%
$886
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 1997
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 1914–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,605
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $269 by
1954, on its way to $1,605 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,605; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,605 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1997/