$100 in 1919 is worth $311 in 1975,
because prices increased 211.0% over that period, an average of
2.05% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$311
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
211.0%
Average inflation rate
2.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$311
Price difference ($100 base)
$211
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1919 → 1975
$311
$100 in 1975 → 1919
$32.16
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1975
Between 1919 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 211.0%, which works out to an average of
2.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1975: the 1919 dollar
lost 67.8% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.11: $1,000 becomes
$3,110, and $10,000 becomes $31,098.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.11
$5.00
$15.55
$10.00
$31.10
$20.00
$62.20
$50.00
$155
$100
$311
$500
$1,555
$1,000
$3,110
$5,000
$15,549
$10,000
$31,098
$100,000
$310,983
$1,000,000
$3,109,827
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1975
Between 1919 and 1975, food rose the most, up 221.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 100.3%, against 211.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.05%
$311
Food
2.11%
$322
Apparel
1.25%
$200
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 1975
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 1919–1975 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$224
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$311
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $129 by
1947, on its way to $311 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $311; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1975: $100 is worth $311 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1975/