$100 in 1916 is worth $161 in 1944,
because prices increased 61.5% over that period, an average of
1.73% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$161
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
61.5%
Average inflation rate
1.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$161
Price difference ($100 base)
$61.47
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1916 → 1944
$161
$100 in 1944 → 1916
$61.93
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1944
Between 1916 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 61.5%, which works out to an average of
1.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1944: the 1916 dollar
lost 38.1% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.61: $1,000 becomes
$1,615, and $10,000 becomes $16,147.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.61
$5.00
$8.07
$10.00
$16.15
$20.00
$32.29
$50.00
$80.73
$100
$161
$500
$807
$1,000
$1,615
$5,000
$8,073
$10,000
$16,147
$100,000
$161,468
$1,000,000
$1,614,679
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1944
Between 1916 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 77.4%, while food rose the least, up 49.6%, against 61.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.73%
$161
Apparel
2.07%
$177
Food
1.45%
$150
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 1944
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 1916–1944 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
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$161
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $153 by
1930, on its way to $161 in 1944; 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 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $161; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1944: $100 is worth $161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1944/