$100 in 1919 is worth $558 in 1982,
because prices increased 457.8% over that period, an average of
2.77% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$558
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
457.8%
Average inflation rate
2.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$558
Price difference ($100 base)
$458
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1919 → 1982
$558
$100 in 1982 → 1919
$17.93
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1982
Between 1919 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 457.8%, which works out to an average of
2.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1982: the 1919 dollar
lost 82.1% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 1982 at the same ratio, 5.58: $1,000 becomes
$5,578, and $10,000 becomes $55,780.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1982
$1.00
$5.58
$5.00
$27.89
$10.00
$55.78
$20.00
$112
$50.00
$279
$100
$558
$500
$2,789
$1,000
$5,578
$5,000
$27,890
$10,000
$55,780
$100,000
$557,803
$1,000,000
$5,578,035
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1982
Between 1919 and 1982, food rose the most, up 423.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 170.2%, against 457.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.77%
$558
Food
2.66%
$524
Apparel
1.59%
$270
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 1982
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 1919–1982 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
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$558
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $138 by
1949, on its way to $558 in 1982; 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: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $558; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1982: $100 is worth $558 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1982/