$100 in 1919 is worth $1,040 in 2002,
because prices increased 939.9% over that period, an average of
2.86% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,040
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
939.9%
Average inflation rate
2.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,040
Price difference ($100 base)
$940
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1919 → 2002
$1,040
$100 in 2002 → 1919
$9.62
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2002
Between 1919 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 939.9%, which works out to an average of
2.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2002: the 1919 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2002 at the same ratio, 10.40: $1,000 becomes
$10,399, and $10,000 becomes $103,988.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2002
$1.00
$10.40
$5.00
$51.99
$10.00
$104
$20.00
$208
$50.00
$520
$100
$1,040
$500
$5,199
$1,000
$10,399
$5,000
$51,994
$10,000
$103,988
$100,000
$1,039,884
$1,000,000
$10,398,844
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2002
Between 1919 and 2002, food rose the most, up 847.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 242.5%, against 939.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.86%
$1,040
Food
2.75%
$947
Apparel
1.49%
$343
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 2002
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 1919–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,040
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $168 by
1959, on its way to $1,040 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,040; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,040 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2002/