$100 in 1919 is worth $167 in 1958,
because prices increased 67.1% over that period, an average of
1.32% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
67.1%
Average inflation rate
1.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$67.05
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1919 → 1958
$167
$100 in 1958 → 1919
$59.86
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1958
Between 1919 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 67.1%, which works out to an average of
1.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1958: the 1919 dollar
lost 40.1% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,671, and $10,000 becomes $16,705.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.35
$10.00
$16.71
$20.00
$33.41
$50.00
$83.53
$100
$167
$500
$835
$1,000
$1,671
$5,000
$8,353
$10,000
$16,705
$100,000
$167,052
$1,000,000
$1,670,520
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1958
Between 1919 and 1958, food rose the most, up 62.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 23.2%, against 67.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.32%
$167
Food
1.25%
$162
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 1958
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 1919–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $80.35 by
1939, on its way to $167 in 1958; 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: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1958: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1958/