$100 in 1914 is worth $2,367 in 2014,
because prices increased 2267.4% over that period, an average of
3.21% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$2,367
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2267.4%
Average inflation rate
3.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,367
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,267
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1914 → 2014
$2,367
$100 in 2014 → 1914
$4.22
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2014
Between 1914 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2267.4%, which works out to an average of
3.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2014: the 1914 dollar
lost 95.8% of its purchasing power over
these 100 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 2014 at the same ratio, 23.67: $1,000 becomes
$23,674, and $10,000 becomes $236,736.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2014
$1.00
$23.67
$5.00
$118
$10.00
$237
$20.00
$473
$50.00
$1,184
$100
$2,367
$500
$11,837
$1,000
$23,674
$5,000
$118,368
$10,000
$236,736
$100,000
$2,367,360
$1,000,000
$23,673,600
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2014
Between 1914 and 2014, food rose the most, up 2279.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 750.1%, against 2267.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.21%
$2,367
Food
3.22%
$2,380
Apparel
2.16%
$850
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 2014
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 1914–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$2,367
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $310 by
1964, on its way to $2,367 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $2,367; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2014: $100 is worth $2,367 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2014/