$100 in 1916 is worth $494 in 1975,
because prices increased 393.6% over that period, an average of
2.74% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$494
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
393.6%
Average inflation rate
2.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$494
Price difference ($100 base)
$394
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1916 → 1975
$494
$100 in 1975 → 1916
$20.26
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1975
Between 1916 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 393.6%, which works out to an average of
2.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1975: the 1916 dollar
lost 79.7% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1975 at the same ratio, 4.94: $1,000 becomes
$4,936, and $10,000 becomes $49,358.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1975
$1.00
$4.94
$5.00
$24.68
$10.00
$49.36
$20.00
$98.72
$50.00
$247
$100
$494
$500
$2,468
$1,000
$4,936
$5,000
$24,679
$10,000
$49,358
$100,000
$493,578
$1,000,000
$4,935,780
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1975
Between 1916 and 1975, food rose the most, up 429.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 331.5%, against 393.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.74%
$494
Food
2.86%
$529
Apparel
2.51%
$432
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 1975
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 1916–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$494
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $179 by
1946, on its way to $494 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $494; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1975: $100 is worth $494 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1975/