$100 in 1916 is worth $243 in 1952,
because prices increased 143.1% over that period, an average of
2.50% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$243
in 1952
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
143.1%
Average inflation rate
2.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$243
Price difference ($100 base)
$143
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1952
26.5
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
$100 in 1916 → 1952
$243
$100 in 1952 → 1916
$41.13
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1952
Between 1916 and 1952, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 26.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 143.1%, which works out to an average of
2.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1952: the 1916 dollar
lost 58.9% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1952 at the same ratio, 2.43: $1,000 becomes
$2,431, and $10,000 becomes $24,312.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1952
$1.00
$2.43
$5.00
$12.16
$10.00
$24.31
$20.00
$48.62
$50.00
$122
$100
$243
$500
$1,216
$1,000
$2,431
$5,000
$12,156
$10,000
$24,312
$100,000
$243,119
$1,000,000
$2,431,193
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1952
Between 1916 and 1952, apparel rose the most, up 158.9%, while food rose the least, up 154.0%, against 143.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1952, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.50%
$243
Apparel
2.68%
$259
Food
2.62%
$254
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 1952
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 1916–1952 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$221
1950–1952
4.86%
10.0%
$243
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $123 by
1934, on its way to $243 in 1952; 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: 1952
In 1952, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $243; the year's average CPI of 26.5 is the level
behind every 1952 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1952: $100 is worth $243 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1952/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1952. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1952/