$100 in 1919 is worth $684 in 1988,
because prices increased 583.8% over that period, an average of
2.83% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$684
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
583.8%
Average inflation rate
2.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$684
Price difference ($100 base)
$584
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1919 → 1988
$684
$100 in 1988 → 1919
$14.62
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1988
Between 1919 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 583.8%, which works out to an average of
2.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1988: the 1919 dollar
lost 85.4% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 1988 at the same ratio, 6.84: $1,000 becomes
$6,838, and $10,000 becomes $68,382.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1988
$1.00
$6.84
$5.00
$34.19
$10.00
$68.38
$20.00
$137
$50.00
$342
$100
$684
$500
$3,419
$1,000
$6,838
$5,000
$34,191
$10,000
$68,382
$100,000
$683,815
$1,000,000
$6,838,150
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1988
Between 1919 and 1988, food rose the most, up 535.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 218.8%, against 583.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.83%
$684
Food
2.72%
$635
Apparel
1.69%
$319
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 1988
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 1919–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$684
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $684 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $684; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1988: $100 is worth $684 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1988/