$100 in 1916 is worth $157 in 1924,
because prices increased 56.9% over that period, an average of
5.79% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$157
in 1924
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
56.9%
Average inflation rate
5.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$157
Price difference ($100 base)
$56.88
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1924
17.1
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
$100 in 1916 → 1924
$157
$100 in 1924 → 1916
$63.74
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1924
Between 1916 and 1924, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 56.9%, which works out to an average of
5.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1924: the 1916 dollar
lost 36.3% of its purchasing power over
these 8 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 1924 at the same ratio, 1.57: $1,000 becomes
$1,569, and $10,000 becomes $15,688.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1924
$1.00
$1.57
$5.00
$7.84
$10.00
$15.69
$20.00
$31.38
$50.00
$78.44
$100
$157
$500
$784
$1,000
$1,569
$5,000
$7,844
$10,000
$15,688
$100,000
$156,881
$1,000,000
$1,568,807
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1924
Between 1916 and 1924, apparel rose the most, up 59.5%, while food rose the least, up 34.5%, against 56.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1924, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.79%
$157
Apparel
6.01%
$160
Food
3.78%
$135
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 1924
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (3.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1924 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1924
-3.84%
-14.5%
$157
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $183 by
1920, on its way to $157 in 1924; 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 1924, prices rose 0.0% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $157; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1924 figure on this page.
Consumer prices held flat in 1924, the CPI’s annual average unchanged from
1923 after swinging from a sharp postwar drop to a modest rise the year
before. That stability, extending the calm that had settled in after the
deflation of 1921 and 1922, became a defining feature of the rest of the
decade. Congress tightened immigration policy further with the Immigration
Act of 1924, signed May 26, which cut the national-origins quota from 3% of
each nationality’s 1910 census population to 2% of its 1890 population,
shifting admissions further toward northern and western Europe and
effectively excluding most immigration from Asia. Abroad, the U.S.-backed
Dawes Plan, adopted that August, reorganized Germany’s war reparations
payments and opened the way for American loans into the German economy,
helping stabilize European currencies after the hyperinflation that had
peaked in 1923. At home, Calvin Coolidge, who had served out
the remainder of Warren Harding’s term after his death the previous year,
won a full term of his own that November, campaigning on continued
prosperity and limited government. First-class postage remained at 2 cents,
a price unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1924: $100 is worth $157 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1924/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1924. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1924/