$100 in 1919 is worth $601 in 1984,
because prices increased 500.6% over that period, an average of
2.80% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$601
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
500.6%
Average inflation rate
2.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$601
Price difference ($100 base)
$501
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1919 → 1984
$601
$100 in 1984 → 1919
$16.65
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1984
Between 1919 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 500.6%, which works out to an average of
2.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1984: the 1919 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1984 at the same ratio, 6.01: $1,000 becomes
$6,006, and $10,000 becomes $60,058.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1984
$1.00
$6.01
$5.00
$30.03
$10.00
$60.06
$20.00
$120
$50.00
$300
$100
$601
$500
$3,003
$1,000
$6,006
$5,000
$30,029
$10,000
$60,058
$100,000
$600,578
$1,000,000
$6,005,780
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1984
Between 1919 and 1984, food rose the most, up 454.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 182.0%, against 500.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.80%
$601
Food
2.67%
$555
Apparel
1.61%
$282
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 1984
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 1919–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$601
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $138 by
1949, on its way to $601 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $601; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1984: $100 is worth $601 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1984/