$100 in 1919 is worth $835 in 1993,
because prices increased 735.3% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$835
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
735.3%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$835
Price difference ($100 base)
$735
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1919 → 1993
$835
$100 in 1993 → 1919
$11.97
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1993
Between 1919 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 735.3%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1993: the 1919 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 1993 at the same ratio, 8.35: $1,000 becomes
$8,353, and $10,000 becomes $83,526.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1993
$1.00
$8.35
$5.00
$41.76
$10.00
$83.53
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$418
$100
$835
$500
$4,176
$1,000
$8,353
$5,000
$41,763
$10,000
$83,526
$100,000
$835,260
$1,000,000
$8,352,601
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1993
Between 1919 and 1993, food rose the most, up 657.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 269.3%, against 735.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$835
Food
2.77%
$758
Apparel
1.78%
$369
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 1993
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 1919–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$835
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $835 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $835; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1993: $100 is worth $835 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1993/