$100 in 1919 is worth $1,129 in 2005,
because prices increased 1028.9% over that period, an average of
2.86% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,129
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1028.9%
Average inflation rate
2.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,129
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,029
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1919 → 2005
$1,129
$100 in 2005 → 1919
$8.86
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2005
Between 1919 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1028.9%, which works out to an average of
2.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2005: the 1919 dollar
lost 91.1% of its purchasing power over
these 86 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 2005 at the same ratio, 11.29: $1,000 becomes
$11,289, and $10,000 becomes $112,890.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2005
$1.00
$11.29
$5.00
$56.45
$10.00
$113
$20.00
$226
$50.00
$564
$100
$1,129
$500
$5,645
$1,000
$11,289
$5,000
$56,445
$10,000
$112,890
$100,000
$1,128,902
$1,000,000
$11,289,017
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2005
Between 1919 and 2005, food rose the most, up 925.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 230.1%, against 1028.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.86%
$1,129
Food
2.74%
$1,025
Apparel
1.40%
$330
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 2005
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 1919–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $179 by
1964, on its way to $1,129 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,129; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2005/