$100 in 1916 is worth $407 in 1973,
because prices increased 307.3% over that period, an average of
2.49% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$407
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
307.3%
Average inflation rate
2.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$407
Price difference ($100 base)
$307
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1916 → 1973
$407
$100 in 1973 → 1916
$24.55
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1973
Between 1916 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 307.3%, which works out to an average of
2.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.25 buys in 1973: the 1916 dollar
lost 75.5% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1973 at the same ratio, 4.07: $1,000 becomes
$4,073, and $10,000 becomes $40,734.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1973
$1.00
$4.07
$5.00
$20.37
$10.00
$40.73
$20.00
$81.47
$50.00
$204
$100
$407
$500
$2,037
$1,000
$4,073
$5,000
$20,367
$10,000
$40,734
$100,000
$407,339
$1,000,000
$4,073,394
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1973
Between 1916 and 1973, food rose the most, up 326.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 284.5%, against 307.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.49%
$407
Food
2.58%
$427
Apparel
2.39%
$385
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 1973
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 1916–1973 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$272
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$356
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$407
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $161 by
1944, on its way to $407 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $407; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1973: $100 is worth $407 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1973/