$100 in 1919 is worth $811 in 1992,
because prices increased 711.0% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$811
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
711.0%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$811
Price difference ($100 base)
$711
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1919 → 1992
$811
$100 in 1992 → 1919
$12.33
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1992
Between 1919 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 711.0%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1992: the 1919 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 1992 at the same ratio, 8.11: $1,000 becomes
$8,110, and $10,000 becomes $81,098.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1992
$1.00
$8.11
$5.00
$40.55
$10.00
$81.10
$20.00
$162
$50.00
$405
$100
$811
$500
$4,055
$1,000
$8,110
$5,000
$40,549
$10,000
$81,098
$100,000
$810,983
$1,000,000
$8,109,827
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1992
Between 1919 and 1992, food rose the most, up 641.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 264.4%, against 711.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$811
Food
2.78%
$741
Apparel
1.79%
$364
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 1992
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 1919–1992 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$755
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$811
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $811 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $811; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1992: $100 is worth $811 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1992/