$100 in 1919 is worth $350 in 1977,
because prices increased 250.3% over that period, an average of
2.18% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$350
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
250.3%
Average inflation rate
2.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$350
Price difference ($100 base)
$250
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1919 → 1977
$350
$100 in 1977 → 1919
$28.55
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1977
Between 1919 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 250.3%, which works out to an average of
2.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.29 buys in 1977: the 1919 dollar
lost 71.5% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1977 at the same ratio, 3.50: $1,000 becomes
$3,503, and $10,000 becomes $35,029.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1977
$1.00
$3.50
$5.00
$17.51
$10.00
$35.03
$20.00
$70.06
$50.00
$175
$100
$350
$500
$1,751
$1,000
$3,503
$5,000
$17,514
$10,000
$35,029
$100,000
$350,289
$1,000,000
$3,502,890
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1977
Between 1919 and 1977, food rose the most, up 252.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 117.1%, against 250.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.18%
$350
Food
2.19%
$352
Apparel
1.35%
$217
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 1977
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 1919–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$350
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $129 by
1947, on its way to $350 in 1977; 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: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $350; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1977: $100 is worth $350 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1977/