$100 in 1916 is worth $245 in 1953,
because prices increased 145.0% over that period, an average of
2.45% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$245
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
145.0%
Average inflation rate
2.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$245
Price difference ($100 base)
$145
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1916 → 1953
$245
$100 in 1953 → 1916
$40.82
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1953
Between 1916 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 145.0%, which works out to an average of
2.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1953: the 1916 dollar
lost 59.2% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1953 at the same ratio, 2.45: $1,000 becomes
$2,450, and $10,000 becomes $24,495.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1953
$1.00
$2.45
$5.00
$12.25
$10.00
$24.50
$20.00
$48.99
$50.00
$122
$100
$245
$500
$1,225
$1,000
$2,450
$5,000
$12,248
$10,000
$24,495
$100,000
$244,954
$1,000,000
$2,449,541
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1953
Between 1916 and 1953, apparel rose the most, up 156.5%, while food rose the least, up 150.4%, against 145.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.45%
$245
Apparel
2.58%
$257
Food
2.51%
$250
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 1953
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 1916–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$245
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $123 by
1934, on its way to $245 in 1953; 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: 1953
In 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $245; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $245 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1953/