$100 in 1919 is worth $576 in 1983,
because prices increased 475.7% over that period, an average of
2.77% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$576
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
475.7%
Average inflation rate
2.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$576
Price difference ($100 base)
$476
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1919 → 1983
$576
$100 in 1983 → 1919
$17.37
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1983
Between 1919 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 475.7%, which works out to an average of
2.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1983: the 1919 dollar
lost 82.6% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 1983 at the same ratio, 5.76: $1,000 becomes
$5,757, and $10,000 becomes $57,572.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1983
$1.00
$5.76
$5.00
$28.79
$10.00
$57.57
$20.00
$115
$50.00
$288
$100
$576
$500
$2,879
$1,000
$5,757
$5,000
$28,786
$10,000
$57,572
$100,000
$575,723
$1,000,000
$5,757,225
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1983
Between 1919 and 1983, food rose the most, up 434.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 176.8%, against 475.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.77%
$576
Food
2.65%
$534
Apparel
1.60%
$277
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 1983
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 1919–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$576
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $138 by
1949, on its way to $576 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $576; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1983: $100 is worth $576 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1983/