$100 in 1919 is worth $1,165 in 2006,
because prices increased 1065.3% over that period, an average of
2.86% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,165
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1065.3%
Average inflation rate
2.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,165
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,065
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1919 → 2006
$1,165
$100 in 2006 → 1919
$8.58
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2006
Between 1919 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1065.3%, which works out to an average of
2.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2006: the 1919 dollar
lost 91.4% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2006 at the same ratio, 11.65: $1,000 becomes
$11,653, and $10,000 becomes $116,532.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2006
$1.00
$11.65
$5.00
$58.27
$10.00
$117
$20.00
$233
$50.00
$583
$100
$1,165
$500
$5,827
$1,000
$11,653
$5,000
$58,266
$10,000
$116,532
$100,000
$1,165,318
$1,000,000
$11,653,179
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2006
Between 1919 and 2006, food rose the most, up 949.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 230.1%, against 1065.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.86%
$1,165
Food
2.74%
$1,049
Apparel
1.38%
$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 2006
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 1919–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$1,165
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $179 by
1964, on its way to $1,165 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,165; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2006: $100 is worth $1,165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2006/