$100 in 1916 is worth $265 in 1958,
because prices increased 165.1% over that period, an average of
2.35% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$265
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
165.1%
Average inflation rate
2.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$265
Price difference ($100 base)
$165
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1916 → 1958
$265
$100 in 1958 → 1916
$37.72
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1958
Between 1916 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 165.1%, which works out to an average of
2.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1958: the 1916 dollar
lost 62.3% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1958 at the same ratio, 2.65: $1,000 becomes
$2,651, and $10,000 becomes $26,514.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1958
$1.00
$2.65
$5.00
$13.26
$10.00
$26.51
$20.00
$53.03
$50.00
$133
$100
$265
$500
$1,326
$1,000
$2,651
$5,000
$13,257
$10,000
$26,514
$100,000
$265,138
$1,000,000
$2,651,376
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1958
Between 1916 and 1958, food rose the most, up 167.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 165.5%, against 165.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.35%
$265
Food
2.37%
$267
Apparel
2.35%
$265
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 1958
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 1916–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$265
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $128 by
1936, on its way to $265 in 1958; 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: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $265; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1958: $100 is worth $265 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1958/