$100 in 1916 is worth $205 in 1947,
because prices increased 104.6% over that period, an average of
2.34% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
104.6%
Average inflation rate
2.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1916 → 1947
$205
$100 in 1947 → 1916
$48.88
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1947
Between 1916 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 104.6%, which works out to an average of
2.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1947: the 1916 dollar
lost 51.1% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1947 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,046, and $10,000 becomes $20,459.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1947
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.23
$10.00
$20.46
$20.00
$40.92
$50.00
$102
$100
$205
$500
$1,023
$1,000
$2,046
$5,000
$10,229
$10,000
$20,459
$100,000
$204,587
$1,000,000
$2,045,872
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1947
Between 1916 and 1947, apparel rose the most, up 137.5%, while food rose the least, up 113.3%, against 104.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.34%
$205
Apparel
2.83%
$238
Food
2.47%
$213
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 1947
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 1916–1947 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
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$205
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $126 by
1932, on its way to $205 in 1947; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1947
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1947: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1947/