$100 in 1916 is worth $160 in 1927,
because prices increased 59.6% over that period, an average of
4.34% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$160
in 1927
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
59.6%
Average inflation rate
4.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$160
Price difference ($100 base)
$59.63
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1927
17.4
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
$100 in 1916 → 1927
$160
$100 in 1927 → 1916
$62.64
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1927
Between 1916 and 1927, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 17.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 59.6%, which works out to an average of
4.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1927: the 1916 dollar
lost 37.4% of its purchasing power over
these 11 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 1927 at the same ratio, 1.60: $1,000 becomes
$1,596, and $10,000 becomes $15,963.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1927
$1.00
$1.60
$5.00
$7.98
$10.00
$15.96
$20.00
$31.93
$50.00
$79.82
$100
$160
$500
$798
$1,000
$1,596
$5,000
$7,982
$10,000
$15,963
$100,000
$159,633
$1,000,000
$1,596,330
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1927
Between 1916 and 1927, apparel rose the most, up 50.6%, while food rose the least, up 45.1%, against 59.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1927, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.34%
$160
Apparel
3.79%
$151
Food
3.44%
$145
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 1927
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1927 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1927
-1.97%
-13.0%
$160
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $164 by
1921, on its way to $160 in 1927; 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 1927, prices fell 1.7% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $160; the year's average CPI of 17.4 is the level
behind every 1927 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1927: $100 is worth $160 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1927/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1927. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1927/