U.S. Inflation History: The Purchasing Power Time Machine

Josh · Last updated:

Facts verified: against 1 source-backed data record; page sources include BLS CPI-U (CUUR0000SA0) annual averages via the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, 1913-2026

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What would an old salary, savings balance, or purchase price mean in today's dollars? Pick an amount and year to compare its buying power, then explore the annual inflation history and how long cash took to lose half its value. The 2026 figures use a labeled estimate.

Source: BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI-U, series CUUR0000SA0), annual averages, as tabulated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. 2026 is the Minneapolis Fed estimate.

Pick a year. Bring money forward.

19132025
$

Buys the same as this in 2026

$0

And the reverse

If you had held it as cash (purchasing power, in starting-year goods)

The decay curve is what holding cash costs. The same dollars invested are a different story - see the S&P 500 time machine for the market comparison, or the I Bond rate history for Treasury's inflation-linked savings rates.

34x
Price level since 1913
What cost $1 in 1913 costs about $34 today. Long-run inflation compounds at 3.2% per year.
+17.4%
Worst year: 1917
World War I finance, not the 1970s, holds the record. 1980's famous peak was 13.5%.
-10.5%
Deepest deflation: 1932
13 of 113 years since 1914 saw falling prices. Only one (2009) came after 1955.

The half-life of the dollar

Inflation calculators tell you what money was worth. This table answers the sharper question: starting from any decade, how many years did cash take to lose half its purchasing power? The answer has ranged from 7 years to "has not happened yet."

Cash held from Years to lose half its value Halved by
1913 7 years 1920
1920 51 years 1971
1930 37 years 1967
1940 17 years 1957
1950 24 years 1974
1960 17 years 1977
1970 10 years 1980
1980 19 years 1999
1990 31 years 2021
2000 Not yet (52% remains) -
2010 Not yet (65% remains) -

Three eras stand out. Money held from 1913 or 1970 halved in about a decade - wartime finance and the oil shocks were that corrosive. Money held from 1990 took three decades to halve, the payoff of the Volcker disinflation. And 2010 cash still has about two thirds of its purchasing power sixteen years later, even after absorbing the 2021-22 spike.

The practical read: the danger of cash is not any single year of inflation, it is which regime you are living in. At the Fed's 2% target, the half-life of a dollar is about 35 years. At the 1970s pace it was under 10.

Every inflation year since 1914, in one strip

Red above the line, blue below. The pre-1950 era swings wildly in both directions; the post-Volcker era is a flat ribbon - which is exactly why 2022 felt like a regime break to anyone under 60.

-10% -5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 1914: +1.0% 1915: +1.0% 1916: +7.9% 1917: +17.4% 1918: +17.2% 1919: +15.3% 1920: +15.6% 1921: -10.5% 1922: -6.1% 1923: +1.8% 1924: 0.0% 1925: +2.3% 1926: +1.1% 1927: -1.7% 1928: -1.1% 1929: 0.0% 1930: -2.9% 1931: -9.0% 1932: -10.5% 1933: -5.1% 1934: +3.9% 1935: +2.2% 1936: +1.5% 1937: +3.6% 1938: -2.1% 1939: -1.4% 1940: +0.7% 1941: +5.0% 1942: +10.9% 1943: +6.1% 1944: +1.7% 1945: +2.3% 1946: +8.3% 1947: +14.4% 1948: +7.6% 1949: -0.8% 1950: +1.3% 1951: +7.9% 1952: +2.3% 1953: +0.8% 1954: +0.4% 1955: -0.4% 1956: +1.5% 1957: +3.3% 1958: +2.8% 1959: +1.0% 1960: +1.4% 1961: +1.0% 1962: +1.3% 1963: +1.0% 1964: +1.3% 1965: +1.6% 1966: +3.2% 1967: +2.8% 1968: +4.2% 1969: +5.5% 1970: +5.7% 1971: +4.4% 1972: +3.2% 1973: +6.2% 1974: +11.0% 1975: +9.1% 1976: +5.8% 1977: +6.5% 1978: +7.6% 1979: +11.3% 1980: +13.5% 1981: +10.3% 1982: +6.2% 1983: +3.2% 1984: +4.3% 1985: +3.6% 1986: +1.9% 1987: +3.6% 1988: +4.1% 1989: +4.8% 1990: +5.4% 1991: +4.2% 1992: +3.0% 1993: +3.0% 1994: +2.6% 1995: +2.8% 1996: +3.0% 1997: +2.3% 1998: +1.6% 1999: +2.2% 2000: +3.4% 2001: +2.8% 2002: +1.6% 2003: +2.3% 2004: +2.7% 2005: +3.4% 2006: +3.2% 2007: +2.8% 2008: +3.9% 2009: -0.4% 2010: +1.7% 2011: +3.1% 2012: +2.1% 2013: +1.5% 2014: +1.6% 2015: +0.1% 2016: +1.3% 2017: +2.1% 2018: +2.4% 2019: +1.8% 2020: +1.2% 2021: +4.7% 2022: +8.0% 2023: +4.1% 2024: +3.0% 2025: +2.6% 2026: +3.5% (estimated) 19201930194019501960197019801990200020102020
Hover any bar for the exact figure. The 2026 bar is the Minneapolis Fed estimate and drawn lighter. ( · ) - PennyCalc chart artwork is reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution; source-data terms still apply. Licensing details.

The eight moments that moved the dollar

1917

World War I finance produces back-to-back years near +18%, still the fastest annual price increases on record.

1921

The postwar bust delivers -10.9%, the deepest one-year deflation ever measured by the CPI.

1933

The Great Depression bottoms out. Prices fell roughly 27% from 1929 to 1933; cash was the era's best-performing asset.

1947

WWII price controls come off and suppressed inflation arrives at once: +14.4% in a single year.

1974

The first oil shock pushes inflation to +11.1%. The dollar of 1970 has already lost a quarter of its purchasing power.

1980

The second oil shock peaks at +13.5%. Volcker's Fed answers with 20% policy rates, buying the next four decades of stability.

2009

The financial crisis produces -0.4%, the only deflationary year since 1955.

2022

Post-pandemic stimulus and supply shocks deliver +8.0%, the fastest year since 1981, and reintroduce a generation to inflation.

Things you might not know

  • The worst inflation was not the 1970s. 1917 (+17.4%) and 1918 (+17.2%) both beat 1980's 13.5%. Wartime finance without a modern central bank was worse than oil shocks with one.
  • Cash was the best asset of the early 1930s. Prices fell about 27% from 1929 to 1933, so uninvested dollars gained a third in purchasing power while stocks lost 80% and banks failed. Deflation is why Depression-era savers hoarded currency.
  • Prices were flat for a century before the CPI. The price level in 1913 was roughly where it had been in 1813; sustained peacetime inflation is a post-gold-standard phenomenon. Every generation before 1940 expected prices to fall back after wars, and they did.
  • A 1913 dollar has lost 97% of its purchasing power - and yet every diversified generation since got wealthier, because wages and asset returns compounded faster. Inflation is a tax on idle cash specifically, not on invested wealth.
  • The 2021-22 spike cost savers a decade of normal erosion in two years. The price level rose 13% from 2020 to 2022 - the same loss of purchasing power that the 2010s delivered in roughly eight years.
Year-by-year table: CPI and inflation, 1913-2026
Year Avg CPI Inflation $100 then = today
1913 9.9 - $3,366
1914 10.0 +1.0% $3,332
1915 10.1 +1.0% $3,299
1916 10.9 +7.9% $3,057
1917 12.8 +17.4% $2,603
1918 15.0 +17.2% $2,221
1919 17.3 +15.3% $1,926
1920 20.0 +15.6% $1,666
1921 17.9 -10.5% $1,861
1922 16.8 -6.1% $1,983
1923 17.1 +1.8% $1,949
1924 17.1 0.0% $1,949
1925 17.5 +2.3% $1,904
1926 17.7 +1.1% $1,882
1927 17.4 -1.7% $1,915
1928 17.2 -1.1% $1,937
1929 17.2 0.0% $1,937
1930 16.7 -2.9% $1,995
1931 15.2 -9.0% $2,192
1932 13.6 -10.5% $2,450
1933 12.9 -5.1% $2,583
1934 13.4 +3.9% $2,487
1935 13.7 +2.2% $2,432
1936 13.9 +1.5% $2,397
1937 14.4 +3.6% $2,314
1938 14.1 -2.1% $2,363
1939 13.9 -1.4% $2,397
1940 14.0 +0.7% $2,380
1941 14.7 +5.0% $2,267
1942 16.3 +10.9% $2,044
1943 17.3 +6.1% $1,926
1944 17.6 +1.7% $1,893
1945 18.0 +2.3% $1,851
1946 19.5 +8.3% $1,709
1947 22.3 +14.4% $1,494
1948 24.0 +7.6% $1,388
1949 23.8 -0.8% $1,400
1950 24.1 +1.3% $1,383
1951 26.0 +7.9% $1,282
1952 26.6 +2.3% $1,253
1953 26.8 +0.8% $1,243
1954 26.9 +0.4% $1,239
1955 26.8 -0.4% $1,243
1956 27.2 +1.5% $1,225
1957 28.1 +3.3% $1,186
1958 28.9 +2.8% $1,153
1959 29.2 +1.0% $1,141
1960 29.6 +1.4% $1,126
1961 29.9 +1.0% $1,114
1962 30.3 +1.3% $1,100
1963 30.6 +1.0% $1,089
1964 31.0 +1.3% $1,075
1965 31.5 +1.6% $1,058
1966 32.5 +3.2% $1,025
1967 33.4 +2.8% $998
1968 34.8 +4.2% $957
1969 36.7 +5.5% $908
1970 38.8 +5.7% $859
1971 40.5 +4.4% $823
1972 41.8 +3.2% $797
1973 44.4 +6.2% $750
1974 49.3 +11.0% $676
1975 53.8 +9.1% $619
1976 56.9 +5.8% $586
1977 60.6 +6.5% $550
1978 65.2 +7.6% $511
1979 72.6 +11.3% $459
1980 82.4 +13.5% $404
1981 90.9 +10.3% $367
1982 96.5 +6.2% $345
1983 99.6 +3.2% $335
1984 103.9 +4.3% $321
1985 107.6 +3.6% $310
1986 109.6 +1.9% $304
1987 113.6 +3.6% $293
1988 118.3 +4.1% $282
1989 124.0 +4.8% $269
1990 130.7 +5.4% $255
1991 136.2 +4.2% $245
1992 140.3 +3.0% $237
1993 144.5 +3.0% $231
1994 148.2 +2.6% $225
1995 152.4 +2.8% $219
1996 156.9 +3.0% $212
1997 160.5 +2.3% $208
1998 163.0 +1.6% $204
1999 166.6 +2.2% $200
2000 172.2 +3.4% $193
2001 177.1 +2.8% $188
2002 179.9 +1.6% $185
2003 184.0 +2.3% $181
2004 188.9 +2.7% $176
2005 195.3 +3.4% $171
2006 201.6 +3.2% $165
2007 207.3 +2.8% $161
2008 215.3 +3.9% $155
2009 214.5 -0.4% $155
2010 218.1 +1.7% $153
2011 224.9 +3.1% $148
2012 229.6 +2.1% $145
2013 233.0 +1.5% $143
2014 236.7 +1.6% $141
2015 237.0 +0.1% $141
2016 240.0 +1.3% $139
2017 245.1 +2.1% $136
2018 251.1 +2.4% $133
2019 255.7 +1.8% $130
2020 258.8 +1.2% $129
2021 271.0 +4.7% $123
2022 292.7 +8.0% $114
2023 304.7 +4.1% $109
2024 313.7 +3.0% $106
2025 321.9 +2.6% $104
2026 (est.) 333.2 +3.5% $100

Source: BLS CPI-U annual averages via the Minneapolis Fed. 2026 is the Minneapolis Fed estimate.

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the inflation conversion calculated?
The conversion multiplies your amount by the ratio of the two years' average Consumer Price Index values (BLS series CUUR0000SA0). $100 in 1970 becomes $100 x (333.2 / 38.8), roughly $859 in 2026 dollars. Annual averages smooth month-to-month noise; the BLS monthly series would give slightly different figures for specific dates.
What is the long-run average U.S. inflation rate?
From 1913 through 2025, the price level compounded at 3.2% per year. The average hides enormous variance: the 1970s averaged over 7%, while 2010-2020 averaged under 2%. The Federal Reserve has targeted 2% since 2012.
Has the U.S. ever had deflation?
Yes - 13 calendar years since 1913 saw the price level fall. Most cluster in 1921-1933; the deepest was 1921 at -10.5%. The only deflationary year in the modern era was 2009 (-0.4%). Sustained deflation vanished after the gold-standard era because the Fed treats falling prices as a policy failure.
Why does the calculator use CPI instead of another measure?
CPI-U is the longest continuous U.S. price series and the one used for Social Security COLAs, tax bracket indexing (via chained CPI since 2018), and TIPS. Alternatives exist: PCE (the Fed's preferred gauge) runs about 0.3 points cooler, and chained CPI about 0.25 points cooler. Over a century those gaps compound, so treat any single-series conversion as an estimate with a range around it.
What does inflation mean for long-term investing?
At the long-run 3.2% pace, prices double roughly every 22 years - cash loses half its purchasing power sitting still. That is the case for owning assets: the S&P 500's 10% long-run nominal return is roughly 6.7% real, and the difference between projecting in nominal versus real terms decides whether a retirement plan actually works. Our compound interest calculator takes either; use a real rate if you think in today's dollars.
This page is for educational purposes. CPI is one measure of inflation among several; individual cost-of-living changes vary. Consult a financial professional for advice specific to your situation.

Prices are only half of the buying-power question. See how minimum wage, median earnings, and household income have changed after inflation. That comparison uses Census's price index so the income and wage lines share the same basis.

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Median Home Price History

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Social Security COLA History

How benefits have chased this exact index since 1975.

Minimum Wage History

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