$100 in 1916 is worth $123 in 1934,
because prices increased 22.9% over that period, an average of
1.15% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$123
in 1934
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
22.9%
Average inflation rate
1.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$123
Price difference ($100 base)
$22.94
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1934
13.4
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
$100 in 1916 → 1934
$123
$100 in 1934 → 1916
$81.34
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1934
Between 1916 and 1934, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 13.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 22.9%, which works out to an average of
1.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.81 buys in 1934: the 1916 dollar
lost 18.7% of its purchasing power over
these 18 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 1934 at the same ratio, 1.23: $1,000 becomes
$1,229, and $10,000 becomes $12,294.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1934
$1.00
$1.23
$5.00
$6.15
$10.00
$12.29
$20.00
$24.59
$50.00
$61.47
$100
$123
$500
$615
$1,000
$1,229
$5,000
$6,147
$10,000
$12,294
$100,000
$122,936
$1,000,000
$1,229,358
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1934
Between 1916 and 1934, apparel rose the most, up 22.6%, while food rose the least, up 2.7%, against 22.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1934, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.15%
$123
Apparel
1.14%
$123
Food
0.15%
$103
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 1934
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1930s (5.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1934 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
1930–1934
-5.36%
-19.8%
$123
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $161 by
1925, on its way to $123 in 1934; 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 1934, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $123; the year's average CPI of 13.4 is the level
behind every 1934 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1934: $100 is worth $123 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1934/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1934. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1934/