$100 in 1919 is worth $155 in 1954,
because prices increased 55.5% over that period, an average of
1.27% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.5%
Average inflation rate
1.27% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.49
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1919 → 1954
$155
$100 in 1954 → 1919
$64.31
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1954
Between 1919 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.5%, which works out to an average of
1.27% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1954: the 1919 dollar
lost 35.7% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,555, and $10,000 becomes $15,549.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.77
$10.00
$15.55
$20.00
$31.10
$50.00
$77.75
$100
$155
$500
$777
$1,000
$1,555
$5,000
$7,775
$10,000
$15,549
$100,000
$155,491
$1,000,000
$1,554,913
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1954
Between 1919 and 1954, food rose the most, up 51.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 19.1%, against 55.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.27%
$155
Food
1.20%
$152
Apparel
0.50%
$119
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 1954
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 1919–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $83.24 by
1937, on its way to $155 in 1954; 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: 1954
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $155; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1954: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1954/