$100 in 1919 is worth $150 in 1951,
because prices increased 50.3% over that period, an average of
1.28% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$150
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
50.3%
Average inflation rate
1.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$150
Price difference ($100 base)
$50.29
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1919 → 1951
$150
$100 in 1951 → 1919
$66.54
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1951
Between 1919 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 50.3%, which works out to an average of
1.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1951: the 1919 dollar
lost 33.5% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.50: $1,000 becomes
$1,503, and $10,000 becomes $15,029.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.50
$5.00
$7.51
$10.00
$15.03
$20.00
$30.06
$50.00
$75.14
$100
$150
$500
$751
$1,000
$1,503
$5,000
$7,514
$10,000
$15,029
$100,000
$150,289
$1,000,000
$1,502,890
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1951
Between 1919 and 1951, food rose the most, up 51.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 21.3%, against 50.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.28%
$150
Food
1.31%
$152
Apparel
0.60%
$121
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 1951
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 1919–1951 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
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$150
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 $150 in 1951; 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: 1951
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $150; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1951: $100 is worth $150 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1951/