$100 in 1914 is worth $2,451 in 2017,
because prices increased 2351.2% over that period, an average of
3.15% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$2,451
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2351.2%
Average inflation rate
3.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,451
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,351
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1914 → 2017
$2,451
$100 in 2017 → 1914
$4.08
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2017
Between 1914 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2351.2%, which works out to an average of
3.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2017: the 1914 dollar
lost 95.9% of its purchasing power over
these 103 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 2017 at the same ratio, 24.51: $1,000 becomes
$24,512, and $10,000 becomes $245,120.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2017
$1.00
$24.51
$5.00
$123
$10.00
$245
$20.00
$490
$50.00
$1,226
$100
$2,451
$500
$12,256
$1,000
$24,512
$5,000
$122,560
$10,000
$245,120
$100,000
$2,451,200
$1,000,000
$24,512,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2017
Between 1914 and 2017, food rose the most, up 2351.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 737.4%, against 2351.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.15%
$2,451
Food
3.15%
$2,452
Apparel
2.08%
$837
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 2017
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 1914–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$2,451
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $310 by
1964, on its way to $2,451 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $2,451; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2017: $100 is worth $2,451 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2017/