$100 in 1919 is worth $525 in 1981,
because prices increased 425.4% over that period, an average of
2.71% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$525
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
425.4%
Average inflation rate
2.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$525
Price difference ($100 base)
$425
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1919 → 1981
$525
$100 in 1981 → 1919
$19.03
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1981
Between 1919 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 425.4%, which works out to an average of
2.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1981: the 1919 dollar
lost 81.0% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1981 at the same ratio, 5.25: $1,000 becomes
$5,254, and $10,000 becomes $52,543.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1981
$1.00
$5.25
$5.00
$26.27
$10.00
$52.54
$20.00
$105
$50.00
$263
$100
$525
$500
$2,627
$1,000
$5,254
$5,000
$26,272
$10,000
$52,543
$100,000
$525,434
$1,000,000
$5,254,335
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1981
Between 1919 and 1981, food rose the most, up 403.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 163.3%, against 425.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.71%
$525
Food
2.64%
$503
Apparel
1.57%
$263
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 1981
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 1919–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$476
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$525
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $138 by
1949, on its way to $525 in 1981; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $525; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1981: $100 is worth $525 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1981/