$100 in 1914 is worth $3,047 in 2023,
because prices increased 2947.0% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$3,047
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2947.0%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$3,047
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,947
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1914 → 2023
$3,047
$100 in 2023 → 1914
$3.28
What happened to prices between 1914 and 2023
Between 1914 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2947.0%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.03 buys in 2023: the 1914 dollar
lost 96.7% of its purchasing power over
these 109 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 2023 at the same ratio, 30.47: $1,000 becomes
$30,470, and $10,000 becomes $304,702.
Amount in 1914
Value in 2023
$1.00
$30.47
$5.00
$152
$10.00
$305
$20.00
$609
$50.00
$1,524
$100
$3,047
$500
$15,235
$1,000
$30,470
$5,000
$152,351
$10,000
$304,702
$100,000
$3,047,020
$1,000,000
$30,470,200
Inflation by spending category, 1914–2023
Between 1914 and 2023, food rose the most, up 3066.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 770.5%, against 2947.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$3,047
Food
3.22%
$3,166
Apparel
2.01%
$871
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 2023
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 1914–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$2,588
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$3,047
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $367 by
1969, on its way to $3,047 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $3,047; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 2023: $100 is worth $3,047 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-2023/