US Inflation Calculator: What a Dollar Was Worth Since 1913

The US dollar has lost almost all of its purchasing power since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began measuring consumer prices in 1913. A sum of $100 in 1913 carried the purchasing power of roughly $3,391 in 2026 — the cost of living rose about 3,291% over the period, or 3.17% a year on average. The calculator below converts any amount between any two years from 1913 to the present using the official CPI-U series.

What the calculator measures

The tool rescales a nominal amount by the ratio of two annual price levels. It uses the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, All Items, not seasonally adjusted (CPI-U) — the same series that underlies the official BLS and Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis inflation calculators. Years from 1913 to 2024 use the full annual average. 2025 uses an eleven-month average, because the BLS could not collect the October 2025 reading during a lapse in federal appropriations. The 2026 figure uses the latest available month.

A conversion answers one question: how much money in a later year buys the same basket of goods and services that a given sum bought in an earlier year. It is a measure of the general price level, not of any single household’s experience — a point the methodology section returns to. Related analysis: our agenda of US macro-financial events.

Worked examples

Each figure below comes from the same CPI-U series the calculator runs on. The further back the starting year, the larger the multiple, but the relationship is far from smooth across decades. On the same theme: the anatomy of the 1921–1923 Weimar hyperinflation.

Read in reverse, a 2026 dollar buys roughly what three cents bought in 1913. The 2020 row is the telling one: a 29% rise in barely six years annualizes to 4.40%, the fastest sustained pace in the table and well above the long-run average.

Why the erosion is not linear

A single long-run average — 3.17% a year — hides the fact that US inflation arrives in bursts separated by long quiet stretches and, occasionally, outright deflation. Measured decade by decade on the annual-average index, the contrast is stark.

• Between 1920 and 1930 the price level fell about 17%, and from its 1929 peak it fell roughly 25% into the 1933 Depression trough.
• The 1940s reversed that: prices rose about 72% over the decade as wartime and post-war demand met supply constraints.
• The 1970s were the steepest sustained climb, about 112% across the decade.
• The 2000s and 2010s were comparatively calm, about 27% and 19% respectively.
• Then 2020 to 2026 alone added roughly 30%, compressing a decade’s worth of typical inflation into six years.

This unevenness is the reason a flat “X% per year” intuition misleads. The same nominal gap means very different things depending on which decades it spans. The structural drivers behind these regimes — war finance, monetary policy, supply shocks — are the subject of a companion study, US inflation is not linear.

Why most calculators stop at 1913

1913 is not an arbitrary cutoff. It is the earliest year of the modern CPI series that the BLS still calculates today, which makes it the first point where the index rests on consistent, nationally collected data rather than on spliced historical reconstructions. Estimates before 1913 exist — the Minneapolis Fed splices indices back to 1800 — but they rest on narrower price samples, so most reference calculators, including this one, begin in 1913 to keep every conversion on the same footing.

What a CPI conversion does and does not capture

The CPI-U tracks a fixed-weight basket of goods and services bought by urban consumers. It is an average, and three limits follow from that. Personal inflation diverges from the headline whenever a household’s spending tilts toward categories — housing, healthcare, education — that have risen faster than the basket. The basket and its weights are revised over time, and quality adjustments change how some prices enter the index, so very long comparisons blend slightly different definitions of “the same basket.” And the index says nothing about why prices moved; it records the outcome, not the cause.

Data. The full series behind this tool — US CPI-U annual averages, 1913 to 2026 — is available as a downloadable CSV.

FAQ

Which price index does this calculator use?

The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, All Items (CPI-U), published by the BLS and distributed as FRED series CPIAUCNS. Years up to 2024 use annual averages; 2025 is an eleven-month average; 2026 uses the latest available month.

Why is $1 in 1913 worth about $34 today?

Because cumulative inflation from 1913 to 2026 totals roughly 3,291%, the general price level is about 33.9 times higher. A dollar therefore buys a little under three cents’ worth of what it bought in 1913. A related resource: our calculator of franc and euro purchasing power across inflation.

Is CPI the same as my personal inflation rate?

No. The CPI-U is an average across a fixed urban basket. A household whose spending is concentrated in faster-rising categories such as housing or healthcare will experience a higher effective rate than the headline figure, and vice versa.

Why does the series start in 1913?

1913 is the earliest year of the modern CPI series the BLS still calculates today. Earlier estimates depend on spliced historical reconstructions, so the index begins there to keep all conversions on consistent ground.

For how a statistical agency builds an inflation index in the first place, see how INSEE calculates inflation. For the market’s forward-looking measure of expected inflation rather than its realized history, see breakeven inflation rates explained.

Last updated — 14 July 2026