Value of a dollar: what $1 of any year buys today
Pick a year and an amount: the result carries it to the latest month on the CPI-U, U.S. city average.
In September 2026 dollars
$8.68
$1.00 at 1970 prices (annual average), U.S. city average.
| Prices since | +768 % |
| Average per year | +3.92 % |
| What $1.00 today buys at 1970 prices | $0.12 |
| Index 1970 | 38.8 |
Prepared by Radif Partners · How the figures are built · BLS indexes through September 2026
A dollar of 1913, the first year of the Consumer Price Index, buys what $34.03 buys in September 2026. A dollar of 1950 is worth $13.98 today, a dollar of 2000 $1.96 and a dollar of 2020 $1.30. Put the other way, today's dollar buys what about 7 cents bought in 1950, and prices have more than doubled since 1999. These figures divide the latest CPI-U for the U.S. city average by the annual average of the year you choose, which is the method of the BLS calculator for past years. They describe buying power over a whole basket of goods and services, not the price of any one thing: a gallon of milk, a car or a house each followed its own path. For an amount tied to a city, the local index can give a noticeably different answer: since 1950 the New York index turns a dollar into $14.79, the Houston index into $12.07.
A dollar by decade
| A dollar of | Is worth today | Prices since | Year page |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1913 | $34.03 | +3,303.4 % | |
| 1920 | $16.85 | +1,584.7 % | |
| 1930 | $20.18 | +1,917.6 % | |
| 1940 | $24.07 | +2,306.7 % | |
| 1950 | $13.98 | +1,298.1 % | $1 in 1950 |
| 1960 | $11.38 | +1,038.3 % | $1 in 1960 |
| 1970 | $8.68 | +768.4 % | $1 in 1970 |
| 1980 | $4.09 | +308.9 % | $1 in 1980 |
| 1990 | $2.58 | +157.8 % | $1 in 1990 |
| 2000 | $1.96 | +95.7 % | $1 in 2000 |
| 2010 | $1.55 | +54.5 % | $1 in 2010 |
| 2020 | $1.30 | +30.2 % | $1 in 2020 |
| 2025 | $1.05 | +4.7 % |
The pages for each decade from 1950 to 2020 go further: inflation year by year around that date, what changed in the index, and the local indexes that already existed then.
How the value of a dollar is computed
The method is a ratio. Take the CPI of today, divide it by the CPI of the past year, multiply by the amount. With the 1970 annual average of 38.8 and 336.94 in September 2026, $1 of 1970 becomes $8.68. Nothing else goes in: no interest, no wage growth, no assumption about the future. That is why the answer is the same whatever the amount: $1,000 of 1970 is simply a thousand times the same ratio.
Two choices change the result. The first is the past date: the annual average of a year smooths its seasons, while a single month can be a little higher or lower. The main calculator accepts a month. The second is the area: the U.S. city average is the default, but a dollar earned in a given city followed that city's prices, and the 23 metro indexes are on the CPI by city page.
A dollar of the year you choose
In September 2026 dollars
$3.13
| Prices since | +213 % |
| Average per year | +2.81 % |
| What $1.00 today buys at 1985 prices | $0.32 |
| Index 1985 | 107.6 |
When a dollar gained value
Prices have not only gone up. From 1929 to 1933, during the Great Depression, the annual average CPI fell 24 %, so a dollar of 1933 bought more than a dollar of 1929. Prices fell again in 1938 and 1939, and after the Second World War only in 1949, 1955 and 2009, each time by less than 2 %. Since 2009 the CPI has risen every year on its annual average, and it is the long accumulation of small rises that turns a dollar of the 1950s into more than ten of today's.
What the comparison is good for
The value of a dollar answers a precise question: how many dollars today give the same command over the average urban basket. It is the right tool to bring an old salary, a pension, a price list or a court award into today's money, or to read a family document. It is weaker for comparing single products, because the CPI follows the price of a constant quality and goods change: the car of 1960 is not the car of today. It is also not a measure of living standards, which depend on income, taxes and what is for sale, not on prices alone.
Why the answer differs between calculators
Two inflation calculators can give slightly different values for the same dollar. The usual reasons are the reference month (the latest month published, or the annual average of the last full year), the past date (a month or the annual average), and the series (CPI-U or CPI-W, seasonally adjusted or not). This page uses the latest month published, September 2026, the annual average of the past year, and the CPI-U not seasonally adjusted, like the BLS calculator. Some calculators also stop at an older year or round the index; ours reads the full value from the BLS file.
A difference of a few cents on a dollar from 1950 is therefore normal. A difference of several dollars means one of the two uses another index or an outdated year.
A dollar in the other direction
The same ratio tells you what a dollar of today was worth in the past. $1.00 in September 2026 has the buying power of $0.39 in 1990 and $0.12 in 1970. That is the figure to use to deflate a series: to show, for instance, how a rent of today compares with the rent your parents paid, in their money.
Limits of the early years
The early values of the index were built with the methods, the samples and the basket of their time, long before the current survey design. The BLS publishes them as the CPI-U for those years, and they are what every calculator uses, including the BLS one. A comparison over a century is still the best available, but it is wiser to read it as an order of magnitude than as a figure exact to the cent.