Monetoscope

Issue No. 01Closed

Issue No. 01 · Cost of LivingClosed

What your money actually meant.

Type in a price and two years. We will tell you what it comes to in the other year's dollars, using the official U.S. Consumer Price Index back to 1913 and a documented academic reconstruction before that.

Sep 21, 2026 to Oct 4, 2026

Inflation calculator

Data runs from 1774 to Aug 2026.

Official · BLS CPI-UIndex 9.900 → 334.980
  • To: 2026 is not over yet, so this uses Aug 2026, the latest available data.
02 / Chart

A century and more of prices

The line is the Consumer Price Index: the cost of a typical basket of goods and services, scaled so that the 1982-84 average equals 100. Green is the official government series. Rust is an academic reconstruction for the years before the government started measuring.

  • Official: BLS CPI-U, monthly, Jan 1913 to Aug 2026
  • Reconstructed: MeasuringWorth, annual, 1774 to 1912
  • 1913: source changes
Index, 1982-84 = 100. Log scale: equal heights mean equal percentage changes.Linear scale. Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; Officer and Williamson, MeasuringWorth.
Show the data as a table
YearIndexSource
17748.064Reconstructed
17757.642Reconstructed
17768.724Reconstructed
177710.632Reconstructed
177813.798Reconstructed
177912.210Reconstructed
178013.705Reconstructed
178111.055Reconstructed
178212.127Reconstructed
178310.632Reconstructed
178410.220Reconstructed
17859.725Reconstructed
17869.477Reconstructed
17879.302Reconstructed
17888.889Reconstructed
17898.807Reconstructed
17909.137Reconstructed
17919.384Reconstructed
17929.560Reconstructed
17939.890Reconstructed
179410.973Reconstructed
179512.550Reconstructed
179613.210Reconstructed
179712.715Reconstructed
179812.293Reconstructed
179912.293Reconstructed
180012.550Reconstructed
180112.715Reconstructed
180210.715Reconstructed
180311.303Reconstructed
180411.797Reconstructed
180511.715Reconstructed
180612.210Reconstructed
180711.550Reconstructed
180812.550Reconstructed
180912.293Reconstructed
181012.293Reconstructed
181113.128Reconstructed
181213.293Reconstructed
181315.953Reconstructed
181417.531Reconstructed
181515.376Reconstructed
181614.046Reconstructed
181713.293Reconstructed
181812.715Reconstructed
181912.715Reconstructed
182011.715Reconstructed
182111.303Reconstructed
182211.715Reconstructed
182310.467Reconstructed
18249.642Reconstructed
18259.890Reconstructed
18269.890Reconstructed
18279.972Reconstructed
18289.477Reconstructed
18299.302Reconstructed
18309.219Reconstructed
18318.642Reconstructed
18328.559Reconstructed
18338.394Reconstructed
18348.559Reconstructed
18358.807Reconstructed
18369.302Reconstructed
18379.560Reconstructed
18389.302Reconstructed
18399.302Reconstructed
18408.642Reconstructed
18418.724Reconstructed
18428.147Reconstructed
18437.394Reconstructed
18447.477Reconstructed
18457.559Reconstructed
18467.642Reconstructed
18478.229Reconstructed
18487.889Reconstructed
18497.642Reconstructed
18507.807Reconstructed
18517.642Reconstructed
18527.724Reconstructed
18537.724Reconstructed
18548.394Reconstructed
18558.642Reconstructed
18568.477Reconstructed
18578.724Reconstructed
18588.229Reconstructed
18598.312Reconstructed
18608.312Reconstructed
18618.807Reconstructed
186210.055Reconstructed
186312.550Reconstructed
186415.706Reconstructed
186516.283Reconstructed
186615.871Reconstructed
186714.788Reconstructed
186814.211Reconstructed
186913.623Reconstructed
187013.045Reconstructed
187112.210Reconstructed
187212.210Reconstructed
187311.963Reconstructed
187411.385Reconstructed
187510.973Reconstructed
187610.715Reconstructed
187710.467Reconstructed
18789.972Reconstructed
18799.972Reconstructed
188010.220Reconstructed
188110.220Reconstructed
188210.220Reconstructed
188310.013Reconstructed
18849.807Reconstructed
18859.611Reconstructed
18869.405Reconstructed
18879.508Reconstructed
18889.508Reconstructed
18899.199Reconstructed
18909.096Reconstructed
18919.096Reconstructed
18929.096Reconstructed
18938.993Reconstructed
18948.601Reconstructed
18958.394Reconstructed
18968.394Reconstructed
18978.291Reconstructed
18988.291Reconstructed
18998.291Reconstructed
19008.394Reconstructed
19018.498Reconstructed
19028.601Reconstructed
19038.797Reconstructed
19048.900Reconstructed
19058.797Reconstructed
19068.993Reconstructed
19079.395Reconstructed
19089.199Reconstructed
19099.096Reconstructed
19109.498Reconstructed
19119.498Reconstructed
19129.694Reconstructed
1913 (annual average)9.900Official
1914 (annual average)10.000Official
1915 (annual average)10.100Official
1916 (annual average)10.900Official
1917 (annual average)12.800Official
1918 (annual average)15.100Official
1919 (annual average)17.300Official
1920 (annual average)20.000Official
1921 (annual average)17.900Official
1922 (annual average)16.800Official
1923 (annual average)17.100Official
1924 (annual average)17.100Official
1925 (annual average)17.500Official
1926 (annual average)17.700Official
1927 (annual average)17.400Official
1928 (annual average)17.100Official
1929 (annual average)17.100Official
1930 (annual average)16.700Official
1931 (annual average)15.200Official
1932 (annual average)13.700Official
1933 (annual average)13.000Official
1934 (annual average)13.400Official
1935 (annual average)13.700Official
1936 (annual average)13.900Official
1937 (annual average)14.400Official
1938 (annual average)14.100Official
1939 (annual average)13.900Official
1940 (annual average)14.000Official
1941 (annual average)14.700Official
1942 (annual average)16.300Official
1943 (annual average)17.300Official
1944 (annual average)17.600Official
1945 (annual average)18.000Official
1946 (annual average)19.500Official
1947 (annual average)22.300Official
1948 (annual average)24.100Official
1949 (annual average)23.800Official
1950 (annual average)24.100Official
1951 (annual average)26.000Official
1952 (annual average)26.500Official
1953 (annual average)26.700Official
1954 (annual average)26.900Official
1955 (annual average)26.800Official
1956 (annual average)27.200Official
1957 (annual average)28.100Official
1958 (annual average)28.900Official
1959 (annual average)29.100Official
1960 (annual average)29.600Official
1961 (annual average)29.900Official
1962 (annual average)30.200Official
1963 (annual average)30.600Official
1964 (annual average)31.000Official
1965 (annual average)31.500Official
1966 (annual average)32.400Official
1967 (annual average)33.400Official
1968 (annual average)34.800Official
1969 (annual average)36.700Official
1970 (annual average)38.800Official
1971 (annual average)40.500Official
1972 (annual average)41.800Official
1973 (annual average)44.400Official
1974 (annual average)49.300Official
1975 (annual average)53.800Official
1976 (annual average)56.900Official
1977 (annual average)60.600Official
1978 (annual average)65.200Official
1979 (annual average)72.600Official
1980 (annual average)82.400Official
1981 (annual average)90.900Official
1982 (annual average)96.500Official
1983 (annual average)99.600Official
1984 (annual average)103.900Official
1985 (annual average)107.600Official
1986 (annual average)109.600Official
1987 (annual average)113.600Official
1988 (annual average)118.300Official
1989 (annual average)124.000Official
1990 (annual average)130.700Official
1991 (annual average)136.200Official
1992 (annual average)140.300Official
1993 (annual average)144.500Official
1994 (annual average)148.200Official
1995 (annual average)152.400Official
1996 (annual average)156.900Official
1997 (annual average)160.500Official
1998 (annual average)163.000Official
1999 (annual average)166.600Official
2000 (annual average)172.200Official
2001 (annual average)177.100Official
2002 (annual average)179.900Official
2003 (annual average)184.000Official
2004 (annual average)188.900Official
2005 (annual average)195.300Official
2006 (annual average)201.600Official
2007 (annual average)207.342Official
2008 (annual average)215.303Official
2009 (annual average)214.537Official
2010 (annual average)218.056Official
2011 (annual average)224.939Official
2012 (annual average)229.594Official
2013 (annual average)232.957Official
2014 (annual average)236.736Official
2015 (annual average)237.017Official
2016 (annual average)240.007Official
2017 (annual average)245.120Official
2018 (annual average)251.107Official
2019 (annual average)255.657Official
2020 (annual average)258.811Official
2021 (annual average)270.970Official
2022 (annual average)292.655Official
2023 (annual average)304.702Official
2024 (annual average)313.689Official
2025 (annual average)321.943Official
Aug 2026 (latest month)334.980Official
03 / Sources

Where every number comes from

Verified by ECHO. 12 conversions checked against figures published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Oct 4, 2026, dataset 2026-08. All matched to the cent.

Official

Jan 1913 to Aug 2026

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI-U, all items, U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted. Series CUUR0000SA0, monthly, 1982-84 = 100.

Retrieved 2026-10-04 (BLS flat file download). Source

Reconstructed

1774 to 1912

Lawrence H. Officer and Samuel H. Williamson, "The Annual Consumer Price Index for the United States", MeasuringWorth. Annual values, which the calculator treats as mid-year.

Retrieved 2026-10-04 (committed file data/raw/measuringworth-uscpi.csv). Source

How the two are joined

MeasuringWorth values before 1913 are multiplied by 1.031250 (BLS 1913 annual average 9.9 / MeasuringWorth 1913 value 9.6) so both series agree on 1913. Reconstructed values are annual and plotted at mid-year.

Any result that touches a year before 1913 is labelled reconstructed.

Changes in how prices were measured

  • Jan 1913: Start of the official BLS series. BLS estimated the earliest years back to 1913 after the fact (in 1919 for city indexes, in 1921 for the national average), and early years cover fewer cities and items than today.
  • Jan 1978: CPI-U introduced in the 1978 comprehensive revision; the older index was renamed CPI-W.
  • Jan 1983: Rental equivalence (owners' equivalent rent) introduced for homeownership costs in the CPI-U in January 1983.
  • Jan 1999: BLS began using a geometric mean formula for most basic indexes in 1999.
  • Nov 2025: BLS published no value for 2025-10 (footnote X: "Data unavailable due to the 2025 lapse in appropriations"); requests for that month are interpolated.
04 / Roadmap

How this issue was built

6 of 6 roles complete

  1. CHRONOSComplete

    Sources and structures the historical data

    BLS CPI-U CUUR0000SA0 monthly from January 1913 to August 2026 and MeasuringWorth annual 1774-1912, joined at 1913 (ratio 1.03125), with methodology notes checked against the BLS Handbook of Methods and October 2025, which BLS never published, interpolated and labelled. Documented in PROVENANCE.md.

  2. NEXUSComplete

    Data pipeline, API, caching

    Re-runnable refresh script, versioned JSON, /api/convert and /api/series with long-lived cache headers.

  3. SIGMAComplete

    Calculation logic and edge-case rules

    Conversion with linear interpolation, visible clamping, full internal precision and negative-amount rejection, covered by unit tests.

  4. IRISComplete

    UX/UI and interface polish

    Ledger-and-paper design system, calculator card with count-up, two-source index chart.

  5. HERMESComplete

    Launch copy and distribution channel

    Issue headline, dek and on-page copy.

  6. ECHOComplete

    Verification, QA and issue close-out

    150 verification checks passed on dataset 2026-08, including 12 year-pair conversions against BLS published annual averages from the BLS historical CPI-U table.

05 / Next issues

Staked out, not started

  1. Issue No. 02Housing over a centuryNot started
  2. Issue No. 03Wages vs. InflationNot started
  3. Issue No. 04Markets over 100 yearsNot started