$100 in 1919 is worth $1,327 in 2012,
because prices increased 1227.1% over that period, an average of
2.82% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,327
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1227.1%
Average inflation rate
2.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,327
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,227
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1919 → 2012
$1,327
$100 in 2012 → 1919
$7.54
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2012
Between 1919 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1227.1%, which works out to an average of
2.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2012: the 1919 dollar
lost 92.5% of its purchasing power over
these 93 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 2012 at the same ratio, 13.27: $1,000 becomes
$13,271, and $10,000 becomes $132,713.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2012
$1.00
$13.27
$5.00
$66.36
$10.00
$133
$20.00
$265
$50.00
$664
$100
$1,327
$500
$6,636
$1,000
$13,271
$5,000
$66,357
$10,000
$132,713
$100,000
$1,327,133
$1,000,000
$13,271,329
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2012
Between 1919 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1156.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 248.8%, against 1227.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.82%
$1,327
Food
2.76%
$1,257
Apparel
1.35%
$349
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 2012
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 1919–2012 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,260
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,327
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $179 by
1964, on its way to $1,327 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,327; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,327 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2012/