$100 in 1914 is worth $1,722 in 2000,
because prices increased 1622.0% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$1,722
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1622.0%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,722
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,622
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1914 → 2000
$1,722
$100 in 2000 → 1914
$5.81
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2000
Between 1914 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1622.0%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2000: the 1914 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 86 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 2000 at the same ratio, 17.22: $1,000 becomes
$17,220, and $10,000 becomes $172,200.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2000
$1.00
$17.22
$5.00
$86.10
$10.00
$172
$20.00
$344
$50.00
$861
$100
$1,722
$500
$8,610
$1,000
$17,220
$5,000
$86,100
$10,000
$172,200
$100,000
$1,722,000
$1,000,000
$17,220,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2000
Between 1914 and 2000, food rose the most, up 1545.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 764.0%, against 1622.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$1,722
Food
3.31%
$1,645
Apparel
2.54%
$864
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 2000
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 1914–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,722
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $291 by
1959, on its way to $1,722 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $1,722; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2000: $100 is worth $1,722 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2000/