$100 in 1919 is worth $1,566 in 2021,
because prices increased 1466.3% over that period, an average of
2.73% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,566
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1466.3%
Average inflation rate
2.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,566
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,466
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1919 → 2021
$1,566
$100 in 2021 → 1919
$6.38
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2021
Between 1919 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1466.3%, which works out to an average of
2.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2021: the 1919 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 102 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 2021 at the same ratio, 15.66: $1,000 becomes
$15,663, and $10,000 becomes $156,630.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2021
$1.00
$15.66
$5.00
$78.32
$10.00
$157
$20.00
$313
$50.00
$783
$100
$1,566
$500
$7,832
$1,000
$15,663
$5,000
$78,315
$10,000
$156,630
$100,000
$1,566,301
$1,000,000
$15,663,006
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2021
Between 1919 and 2021, food rose the most, up 1393.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 234.2%, against 1466.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.73%
$1,566
Food
2.69%
$1,493
Apparel
1.19%
$334
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 2021
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 1919–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,496
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$1,566
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $212 by
1969, on its way to $1,566 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,566; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2021: $100 is worth $1,566 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2021/