$100 in 1919 is worth $857 in 1994,
because prices increased 756.6% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$857
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
756.6%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$857
Price difference ($100 base)
$757
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1919 → 1994
$857
$100 in 1994 → 1919
$11.67
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1994
Between 1919 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 756.6%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1994: the 1919 dollar
lost 88.3% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 1994 at the same ratio, 8.57: $1,000 becomes
$8,566, and $10,000 becomes $85,665.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1994
$1.00
$8.57
$5.00
$42.83
$10.00
$85.66
$20.00
$171
$50.00
$428
$100
$857
$500
$4,283
$1,000
$8,566
$5,000
$42,832
$10,000
$85,665
$100,000
$856,647
$1,000,000
$8,566,474
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1994
Between 1919 and 1994, food rose the most, up 675.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 268.5%, against 756.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$857
Food
2.77%
$776
Apparel
1.75%
$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 1994
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 1919–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$857
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $155 by
1954, on its way to $857 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $857; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1994: $100 is worth $857 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1994/