$100 in 1916 is worth $128 in 1940,
because prices increased 28.4% over that period, an average of
1.05% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$128
in 1940
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
28.4%
Average inflation rate
1.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$128
Price difference ($100 base)
$28.44
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1940
14
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
$100 in 1916 → 1940
$128
$100 in 1940 → 1916
$77.86
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1940
Between 1916 and 1940, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 14.
Cumulatively, prices increased 28.4%, which works out to an average of
1.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1940: the 1916 dollar
lost 22.1% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1940 at the same ratio, 1.28: $1,000 becomes
$1,284, and $10,000 becomes $12,844.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1940
$1.00
$1.28
$5.00
$6.42
$10.00
$12.84
$20.00
$25.69
$50.00
$64.22
$100
$128
$500
$642
$1,000
$1,284
$5,000
$6,422
$10,000
$12,844
$100,000
$128,440
$1,000,000
$1,284,404
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1940
Between 1916 and 1940, apparel rose the most, up 29.8%, while food rose the least, up 6.2%, against 28.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1940, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.05%
$128
Apparel
1.09%
$130
Food
0.25%
$106
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 1940
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.39% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1916–1940 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
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$128
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $157 by
1928, on its way to $128 in 1940; 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 1940, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $128; the year's average CPI of 14 is the level
behind every 1940 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1940, snapping 1939’s decline
and marking the first increase since 1937. The gain was modest, and the CPI
still stood 18.1% below its 1929 peak, a reminder of how far
the recovery from the Depression’s trough had left to go even as defense
orders from Britain and France began reaching American factories. War was
already reshaping domestic policy well before it touched American soil.
Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act that September, the
country’s first peacetime draft, requiring men aged 21 to 35 to register and
authorizing the induction of up to 900,000 men a year, more than a year
before Pearl Harbor. That November, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented
third term, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie after campaigning on
keeping the United States out of the war then consuming Europe and Asia. The
promise would not hold much longer: within two years, wartime demand would
push consumer prices up faster than at any point since the aftermath of
World War I. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the federal minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour, the level set the previous October under
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1940: $100 is worth $128 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1940/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1940. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1940/