$100 in 1919 is worth $1,024 in 2001,
because prices increased 923.7% over that period, an average of
2.88% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,024
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
923.7%
Average inflation rate
2.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,024
Price difference ($100 base)
$924
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1919 → 2001
$1,024
$100 in 2001 → 1919
$9.77
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2001
Between 1919 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 923.7%, which works out to an average of
2.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2001: the 1919 dollar
lost 90.2% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 2001 at the same ratio, 10.24: $1,000 becomes
$10,237, and $10,000 becomes $102,370.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2001
$1.00
$10.24
$5.00
$51.18
$10.00
$102
$20.00
$205
$50.00
$512
$100
$1,024
$500
$5,118
$1,000
$10,237
$5,000
$51,185
$10,000
$102,370
$100,000
$1,023,699
$1,000,000
$10,236,994
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2001
Between 1919 and 2001, food rose the most, up 830.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 251.7%, against 923.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.88%
$1,024
Food
2.76%
$931
Apparel
1.55%
$352
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 2001
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 1919–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$995
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$1,024
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $168 by
1959, on its way to $1,024 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,024; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2001: $100 is worth $1,024 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2001/