$100 in 1919 is worth $717 in 1989,
because prices increased 616.8% over that period, an average of
2.85% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$717
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
616.8%
Average inflation rate
2.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$717
Price difference ($100 base)
$617
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1919 → 1989
$717
$100 in 1989 → 1919
$13.95
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1989
Between 1919 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 616.8%, which works out to an average of
2.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1989: the 1919 dollar
lost 86.0% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 1989 at the same ratio, 7.17: $1,000 becomes
$7,168, and $10,000 becomes $71,676.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1989
$1.00
$7.17
$5.00
$35.84
$10.00
$71.68
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$358
$100
$717
$500
$3,584
$1,000
$7,168
$5,000
$35,838
$10,000
$71,676
$100,000
$716,763
$1,000,000
$7,167,630
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1989
Between 1919 and 1989, food rose the most, up 572.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 227.6%, against 616.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.85%
$717
Food
2.76%
$673
Apparel
1.71%
$328
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 1989
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 1919–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$717
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $717 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $717; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1989: $100 is worth $717 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1989/