$100 in 1916 is worth $154 in 1922,
because prices increased 54.1% over that period, an average of
7.48% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$154
in 1922
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
54.1%
Average inflation rate
7.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$154
Price difference ($100 base)
$54.13
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1922
16.8
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
$100 in 1916 → 1922
$154
$100 in 1922 → 1916
$64.88
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1922
Between 1916 and 1922, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 16.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 54.1%, which works out to an average of
7.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1922: the 1916 dollar
lost 35.1% of its purchasing power over
these 6 years.
1916 was when World War I first showed up clearly in American price tags.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% for the year, easily the sharpest increase since
the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI history begins in 1913, as factories ran
flat out to fill steel, munitions, and food orders from Britain and France.
Railroad workers felt the squeeze from rising living costs enough to threaten
a nationwide strike; Congress headed it off in September with the Adamson
Act, which set an eight-hour standard workday for interstate rail employees,
the first federal law of its kind covering private-sector hours. Washington
was also preparing more directly for war: the National Defense Act, signed
in June, expanded the Army and National Guard and funded new
government-owned munitions plants, adding another source of demand to an
economy already running hot. Woodrow Wilson won re-election in November
largely on having kept the country out of the fighting so far, a promise
that would not survive the following spring. A first-class stamp still cost
2 cents, one of the few prices that had not yet moved.
Every 1916 amount converts to 1922 at the same ratio, 1.54: $1,000 becomes
$1,541, and $10,000 becomes $15,413.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1922
$1.00
$1.54
$5.00
$7.71
$10.00
$15.41
$20.00
$30.83
$50.00
$77.06
$100
$154
$500
$771
$1,000
$1,541
$5,000
$7,706
$10,000
$15,413
$100,000
$154,128
$1,000,000
$1,541,284
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1922
Between 1916 and 1922, apparel rose the most, up 60.7%, while food rose the least, up 31.9%, against 54.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1922, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
7.48%
$154
Apparel
8.23%
$161
Food
4.72%
$132
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1916: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1916 to 1922
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (8.3% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1922 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1922
-8.35%
-16.0%
$154
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $159 by
1919, on its way to $154 in 1922; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1922, prices fell 6.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $154; the year's average CPI of 16.8 is the level
behind every 1922 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1922: $100 is worth $154 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1922/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1922. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1922/