$100 in 1914 is worth $2,181 in 2010,
because prices increased 2080.6% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$2,181
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2080.6%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,181
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,081
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1914 → 2010
$2,181
$100 in 2010 → 1914
$4.59
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2010
Between 1914 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2080.6%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2010: the 1914 dollar
lost 95.4% of its purchasing power over
these 96 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 2010 at the same ratio, 21.81: $1,000 becomes
$21,806, and $10,000 becomes $218,056.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2010
$1.00
$21.81
$5.00
$109
$10.00
$218
$20.00
$436
$50.00
$1,090
$100
$2,181
$500
$10,903
$1,000
$21,806
$5,000
$109,028
$10,000
$218,056
$100,000
$2,180,560
$1,000,000
$21,805,600
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2010
Between 1914 and 2010, food rose the most, up 2053.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 696.7%, against 2080.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$2,181
Food
3.25%
$2,153
Apparel
2.19%
$797
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 2010
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 1914–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$2,181
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $310 by
1964, on its way to $2,181 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $2,181; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2010: $100 is worth $2,181 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2010/