$100 in 1916 is worth $452 in 1974,
because prices increased 352.3% over that period, an average of
2.64% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$452
in 1974
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
352.3%
Average inflation rate
2.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$452
Price difference ($100 base)
$352
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1974
49.3
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1974
11.04%
$100 in 1916 → 1974
$452
$100 in 1974 → 1916
$22.11
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1974
Between 1916 and 1974, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 49.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 352.3%, which works out to an average of
2.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.22 buys in 1974: the 1916 dollar
lost 77.9% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1974 at the same ratio, 4.52: $1,000 becomes
$4,523, and $10,000 becomes $45,229.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1974
$1.00
$4.52
$5.00
$22.61
$10.00
$45.23
$20.00
$90.46
$50.00
$226
$100
$452
$500
$2,261
$1,000
$4,523
$5,000
$22,615
$10,000
$45,229
$100,000
$452,294
$1,000,000
$4,522,936
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1974
Between 1916 and 1974, food rose the most, up 387.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 313.1%, against 352.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1974, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.64%
$452
Food
2.77%
$488
Apparel
2.48%
$413
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 1974
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 1916–1974 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
1970–1974
6.17%
27.1%
$452
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $161 by
1944, on its way to $452 in 1974; 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: 1974
In 1974, prices rose 11.0% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $452; the year's average CPI of 49.3 is the level
behind every 1974 figure on this page.
1974 was the year the postwar economy broke its old rules. Consumer prices
rose 11.0%, the fastest annual increase since 1947, as the Arab oil embargo
that ran from October 1973 to March 1974 roughly quadrupled the price of
crude oil worldwide. Gasoline, which had averaged 38.5 cents a gallon in
1973, jumped to 53.2 cents, and shortages forced many states into odd-even
rationing at the pump. Nixon’s wage and price controls, in place in some form
since 1971, expired at the end of April, removing the last brake on prices
just as the oil shock hit. Nixon himself resigned in August over Watergate,
and Gerald Ford’s response to inflation, a voluntary “Whip Inflation Now”
campaign built around lapel buttons, became a symbol of how little
conventional politics could do against the problem. Prices kept climbing even
as the economy weakened: a recession that started in November 1973 dragged
on, the Dow fell to a bear-market bottom of 577.60 in December, and
unemployment was already rising toward the 9% it would reach in 1975. The
combination of rising prices and a shrinking economy gave the decade its
name: stagflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1974: $100 is worth $452 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1974/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1974. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1974/