$100 in 1919 is worth $634 in 1986,
because prices increased 533.5% over that period, an average of
2.79% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$634
in 1986
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
533.5%
Average inflation rate
2.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$634
Price difference ($100 base)
$534
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1986
109.6
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1986
1.86%
$100 in 1919 → 1986
$634
$100 in 1986 → 1919
$15.78
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1986
Between 1919 and 1986, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 109.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 533.5%, which works out to an average of
2.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1986: the 1919 dollar
lost 84.2% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 1986 at the same ratio, 6.34: $1,000 becomes
$6,335, and $10,000 becomes $63,353.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1986
$1.00
$6.34
$5.00
$31.68
$10.00
$63.35
$20.00
$127
$50.00
$317
$100
$634
$500
$3,168
$1,000
$6,335
$5,000
$31,676
$10,000
$63,353
$100,000
$633,526
$1,000,000
$6,335,260
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1986
Between 1919 and 1986, food rose the most, up 486.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 192.5%, against 533.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1986, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.79%
$634
Food
2.67%
$586
Apparel
1.62%
$293
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 1986
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 1919–1986 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
1980–1986
4.87%
33.0%
$634
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $634 in 1986; 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: 1986
In 1986, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $634; the year's average CPI of 109.6 is the level
behind every 1986 figure on this page.
1986 delivered the decade’s biggest one-year drop in inflation, and it came
almost entirely from a single source: oil. Saudi Arabia abandoned its policy
of restraining output to prop up prices, and world crude collapsed from
about $27 a barrel to under $10 by midyear. Gasoline, which had averaged
$1.12 a gallon in 1985, fell to 86 cents. With energy costs plunging,
headline CPI inflation for the year came in at just 1.9%, the lowest annual
rate since 1965 and a striking bookend to 1980’s 13.5% peak. The relief was
uneven: prices for most goods and services outside energy kept rising at a
moderate pace, so households that didn’t drive much or heat with oil felt
less of the difference. In October, Congress passed the Tax Reform Act of
1986, a bipartisan overhaul that cut the top individual income tax rate from
50% to 28% while closing many deductions and shelters, the broadest rewrite
of the federal tax code since World War II. Between cheap gas and falling
interest rates, 1986 read like proof that the inflationary 1970s were a
closed chapter, six years after the U.S. economy had felt anything but
calm.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1986: $100 is worth $634 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1986/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1986. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1986/