$100 in 1916 is worth $135 in 1941,
because prices increased 34.9% over that period, an average of
1.20% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
34.9%
Average inflation rate
1.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$34.86
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1916 → 1941
$135
$100 in 1941 → 1916
$74.15
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1941
Between 1916 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 34.9%, which works out to an average of
1.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1941: the 1916 dollar
lost 25.9% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1941 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,349, and $10,000 becomes $13,486.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1941
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.74
$10.00
$13.49
$20.00
$26.97
$50.00
$67.43
$100
$135
$500
$674
$1,000
$1,349
$5,000
$6,743
$10,000
$13,486
$100,000
$134,862
$1,000,000
$1,348,624
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1941
Between 1916 and 1941, apparel rose the most, up 35.7%, while food rose the least, up 15.9%, against 34.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.20%
$135
Apparel
1.23%
$136
Food
0.59%
$116
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 1941
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 1916–1941 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
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$135
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $157 by
1928, on its way to $135 in 1941; 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 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1941: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1941/