$100 in 1919 is worth $139 in 1950,
because prices increased 39.3% over that period, an average of
1.08% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$139
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
39.3%
Average inflation rate
1.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$139
Price difference ($100 base)
$39.31
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1919 → 1950
$139
$100 in 1950 → 1919
$71.78
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1950
Between 1919 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 39.3%, which works out to an average of
1.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1950: the 1919 dollar
lost 28.2% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.39: $1,000 becomes
$1,393, and $10,000 becomes $13,931.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1950
$1.00
$1.39
$5.00
$6.97
$10.00
$13.93
$20.00
$27.86
$50.00
$69.65
$100
$139
$500
$697
$1,000
$1,393
$5,000
$6,965
$10,000
$13,931
$100,000
$139,306
$1,000,000
$1,393,064
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1950
Between 1919 and 1950, food rose the most, up 36.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 11.3%, against 39.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.08%
$139
Food
1.01%
$137
Apparel
0.35%
$111
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 1950
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1950 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
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $79.19 by
1935, on its way to $139 in 1950; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1950
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $139; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1950: $100 is worth $139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1950/