$100 in 1916 is worth $258 in 1957,
because prices increased 157.8% over that period, an average of
2.34% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$258
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
157.8%
Average inflation rate
2.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$258
Price difference ($100 base)
$158
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1916 → 1957
$258
$100 in 1957 → 1916
$38.79
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1957
Between 1916 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 157.8%, which works out to an average of
2.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1957: the 1916 dollar
lost 61.2% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1957 at the same ratio, 2.58: $1,000 becomes
$2,578, and $10,000 becomes $25,780.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1957
$1.00
$2.58
$5.00
$12.89
$10.00
$25.78
$20.00
$51.56
$50.00
$129
$100
$258
$500
$1,289
$1,000
$2,578
$5,000
$12,890
$10,000
$25,780
$100,000
$257,798
$1,000,000
$2,577,982
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1957
Between 1916 and 1957, apparel rose the most, up 164.9%, while food rose the least, up 155.8%, against 157.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.34%
$258
Apparel
2.40%
$265
Food
2.32%
$256
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 1957
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 1916–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$258
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $128 by
1936, on its way to $258 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $258; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1957: $100 is worth $258 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1957/