$100 in 1914 is worth $2,557 in 2019,
because prices increased 2456.6% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$2,557
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2456.6%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,557
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,457
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1914 → 2019
$2,557
$100 in 2019 → 1914
$3.91
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2019
Between 1914 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2456.6%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2019: the 1914 dollar
lost 96.1% of its purchasing power over
these 105 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 2019 at the same ratio, 25.57: $1,000 becomes
$25,566, and $10,000 becomes $255,657.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2019
$1.00
$25.57
$5.00
$128
$10.00
$256
$20.00
$511
$50.00
$1,278
$100
$2,557
$500
$12,783
$1,000
$25,566
$5,000
$127,829
$10,000
$255,657
$100,000
$2,556,570
$1,000,000
$25,565,700
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2019
Between 1914 and 2019, food rose the most, up 2432.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 727.0%, against 2456.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$2,557
Food
3.13%
$2,533
Apparel
2.03%
$827
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 2019
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 1914–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$2,557
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $310 by
1964, on its way to $2,557 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $2,557; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2019: $100 is worth $2,557 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2019/