$100 in 1919 is worth $1,761 in 2023,
because prices increased 1661.3% over that period, an average of
2.80% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,761
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1661.3%
Average inflation rate
2.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,761
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,661
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1919 → 2023
$1,761
$100 in 2023 → 1919
$5.68
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2023
Between 1919 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1661.3%, which works out to an average of
2.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2023: the 1919 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 104 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 2023 at the same ratio, 17.61: $1,000 becomes
$17,613, and $10,000 becomes $176,128.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2023
$1.00
$17.61
$5.00
$88.06
$10.00
$176
$20.00
$352
$50.00
$881
$100
$1,761
$500
$8,806
$1,000
$17,613
$5,000
$88,064
$10,000
$176,128
$100,000
$1,761,283
$1,000,000
$17,612,832
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2023
Between 1919 and 2023, food rose the most, up 1636.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 260.7%, against 1661.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.80%
$1,761
Food
2.78%
$1,736
Apparel
1.24%
$361
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 2023
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 1919–2023 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
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,761
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $212 by
1969, on its way to $1,761 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $1,761; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,761 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2023/