$100 in 1919 is worth $103 in 1921,
because prices increased 3.5% over that period, an average of
1.72% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 1921
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
3.5%
Average inflation rate
1.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$3.47
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1921
17.9
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
$100 in 1919 → 1921
$103
$100 in 1921 → 1919
$96.65
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1921
Between 1919 and 1921, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 17.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 3.5%, which works out to an average of
1.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1921: the 1919 dollar
lost 3.4% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1921 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,035, and $10,000 becomes $10,347.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1921
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.17
$10.00
$10.35
$20.00
$20.69
$50.00
$51.73
$100
$103
$500
$517
$1,000
$1,035
$5,000
$5,173
$10,000
$10,347
$100,000
$103,468
$1,000,000
$1,034,682
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1921
Every category fell between 1919 and 1921: food the most, down 14.5%, and apparel the least, down 8.3%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1921, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.72%
$103
Apparel
-4.23%
$91.71
Food
-7.54%
$85.48
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1921
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (10.5% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1921 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1921
-10.50%
-10.5%
$103
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $116 by
1920, on its way to $103 in 1921; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1921, prices fell 10.5% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $103; the year's average CPI of 17.9 is the level
behind every 1921 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the mirror image of the wartime
inflation that had more than doubled the cost of living between
1913 and 1920. The Depression of 1920-21, one
of the sharpest contractions in U.S. history, bottomed out that July
according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, even though it had
lasted barely eighteen months. Unemployment climbed toward one worker in ten
as businesses cut production and prices to work through wartime inventories,
but the same collapse in prices also meant the recovery, once it started,
had room to run without reigniting inflation. Warren Harding took office
March 4, promising a return to “normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic,
labor unrest, and rapid price swings; his administration moved quickly to
cut top income tax rates and federal spending. Congress also acted on
immigration that year: the Emergency Quota Act, signed May 19, capped annual
arrivals from each country at 3% of that nationality’s population in the
1910 census, the first time the United States had set a numerical ceiling on
immigration. The law favored northern and western Europe and cut total
immigration by more than half compared with prewar levels; Congress
tightened the formula again in 1924. First-class postage held at 2 cents,
unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1921: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1921/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1921. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1921/