$100 in 1914 is worth $2,400 in 2016,
because prices increased 2300.1% over that period, an average of
3.16% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$2,400
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2300.1%
Average inflation rate
3.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,400
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,300
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1914 → 2016
$2,400
$100 in 2016 → 1914
$4.17
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2016
Between 1914 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2300.1%, which works out to an average of
3.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2016: the 1914 dollar
lost 95.8% of its purchasing power over
these 102 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 2016 at the same ratio, 24.00: $1,000 becomes
$24,001, and $10,000 becomes $240,007.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2016
$1.00
$24.00
$5.00
$120
$10.00
$240
$20.00
$480
$50.00
$1,200
$100
$2,400
$500
$12,000
$1,000
$24,001
$5,000
$120,004
$10,000
$240,007
$100,000
$2,400,070
$1,000,000
$24,000,700
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2016
Between 1914 and 2016, food rose the most, up 2330.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 740.3%, against 2300.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.16%
$2,400
Food
3.18%
$2,431
Apparel
2.11%
$840
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 2016
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 1914–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$2,400
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $310 by
1964, on its way to $2,400 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $2,400; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2016: $100 is worth $2,400 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2016/