$100 in 1919 is worth $75.14 in 1933,
because prices declined 24.9% over that period, an average of
2.02% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$75.14
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-24.9%
Average inflation rate
-2.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$75.14
Price difference ($100 base)
-$24.86
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1919 → 1933
$75.14
$100 in 1933 → 1919
$133
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1933
Between 1919 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices declined 24.9%, which works out to an average of
-2.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$1.33 buys in 1933: the 1919 dollar
gained 33.1% in purchasing power over
these 14 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 1933 at the same ratio, 0.75: $1,000 becomes
$751, and $10,000 becomes $7,514.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1933
$1.00
$0.75
$5.00
$3.76
$10.00
$7.51
$20.00
$15.03
$50.00
$37.57
$100
$75.14
$500
$376
$1,000
$751
$5,000
$3,757
$10,000
$7,514
$100,000
$75,145
$1,000,000
$751,445
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1933
Every category fell between 1919 and 1933: apparel the most, down 48.1%, and food the least, down 44.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.02%
$75.14
Food
-4.07%
$55.91
Apparel
-4.57%
$51.93
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 1933
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1933 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$75.14
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $102 by
1926, on its way to $75.14 in 1933; 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 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $75.14; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1933: $100 is worth $75.14 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1933/