$100 in 1919 is worth $162 in 1957,
because prices increased 62.4% over that period, an average of
1.28% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$162
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
62.4%
Average inflation rate
1.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$162
Price difference ($100 base)
$62.43
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1919 → 1957
$162
$100 in 1957 → 1919
$61.57
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1957
Between 1919 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 62.4%, which works out to an average of
1.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1957: the 1919 dollar
lost 38.4% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.62: $1,000 becomes
$1,624, and $10,000 becomes $16,243.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.62
$5.00
$8.12
$10.00
$16.24
$20.00
$32.49
$50.00
$81.21
$100
$162
$500
$812
$1,000
$1,624
$5,000
$8,121
$10,000
$16,243
$100,000
$162,428
$1,000,000
$1,624,277
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1957
Between 1919 and 1957, food rose the most, up 55.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 22.9%, against 62.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.28%
$162
Food
1.17%
$155
Apparel
0.54%
$123
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 1957
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 1919–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$162
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 $162 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $162; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1957: $100 is worth $162 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1957/