$100 in 1914 is worth $1,666 in 1999,
because prices increased 1566.0% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,666
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1566.0%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,666
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,566
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1914 → 1999
$1,666
$100 in 1999 → 1914
$6.00
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1999
Between 1914 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1566.0%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.06 buys in 1999: the 1914 dollar
lost 94.0% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 1999 at the same ratio, 16.66: $1,000 becomes
$16,660, and $10,000 becomes $166,600.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1999
$1.00
$16.66
$5.00
$83.30
$10.00
$167
$20.00
$333
$50.00
$833
$100
$1,666
$500
$8,330
$1,000
$16,660
$5,000
$83,300
$10,000
$166,600
$100,000
$1,666,000
$1,000,000
$16,660,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1999
Between 1914 and 1999, food rose the most, up 1508.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 775.3%, against 1566.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$1,666
Food
3.32%
$1,609
Apparel
2.59%
$875
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 1999
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 1914–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,666
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $269 by
1954, on its way to $1,666 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,666; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,666 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1999/