$100 in 1919 is worth $1,417 in 2017,
because prices increased 1316.9% over that period, an average of
2.74% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,417
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1316.9%
Average inflation rate
2.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,417
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,317
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1919 → 2017
$1,417
$100 in 2017 → 1919
$7.06
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2017
Between 1919 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1316.9%, which works out to an average of
2.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2017: the 1919 dollar
lost 92.9% of its purchasing power over
these 98 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 2017 at the same ratio, 14.17: $1,000 becomes
$14,169, and $10,000 becomes $141,688.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2017
$1.00
$14.17
$5.00
$70.84
$10.00
$142
$20.00
$283
$50.00
$708
$100
$1,417
$500
$7,084
$1,000
$14,169
$5,000
$70,844
$10,000
$141,688
$100,000
$1,416,879
$1,000,000
$14,168,786
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2017
Between 1919 and 2017, food rose the most, up 1244.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 247.0%, against 1316.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.74%
$1,417
Food
2.69%
$1,344
Apparel
1.28%
$347
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 2017
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 1919–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,417
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $212 by
1969, on its way to $1,417 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,417; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,417 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2017/