$100 in 1916 is worth $119 in 1933,
because prices increased 19.3% over that period, an average of
1.04% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.3%
Average inflation rate
1.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.27
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1916 → 1933
$119
$100 in 1933 → 1916
$83.85
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1933
Between 1916 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.3%, which works out to an average of
1.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.84 buys in 1933: the 1916 dollar
lost 16.2% of its purchasing power over
these 17 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 1933 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,193, and $10,000 becomes $11,927.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1933
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.96
$10.00
$11.93
$20.00
$23.85
$50.00
$59.63
$100
$119
$500
$596
$1,000
$1,193
$5,000
$5,963
$10,000
$11,927
$100,000
$119,266
$1,000,000
$1,192,661
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1933
Between 1916 and 1933, apparel rose the most, up 11.9%, while food fell 8.0%, against 19.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.04%
$119
Apparel
0.66%
$112
Food
-0.49%
$92.04
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 1933
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1933 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1916, at end
1916–1920
16.39%
83.5%
$183
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$153
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $157 by
1924, on its way to $119 in 1933; 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 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $119; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1933: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1933/