$100 in 1916 is worth $556 in 1977,
because prices increased 456.0% over that period, an average of
2.85% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$556
in 1977
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
456.0%
Average inflation rate
2.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$556
Price difference ($100 base)
$456
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1977
60.6
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1977
6.50%
$100 in 1916 → 1977
$556
$100 in 1977 → 1916
$17.99
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1977
Between 1916 and 1977, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 60.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 456.0%, which works out to an average of
2.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1977: the 1916 dollar
lost 82.0% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1977 at the same ratio, 5.56: $1,000 becomes
$5,560, and $10,000 becomes $55,596.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1977
$1.00
$5.56
$5.00
$27.80
$10.00
$55.60
$20.00
$111
$50.00
$278
$100
$556
$500
$2,780
$1,000
$5,560
$5,000
$27,798
$10,000
$55,596
$100,000
$555,963
$1,000,000
$5,559,633
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1977
Between 1916 and 1977, food rose the most, up 479.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 367.9%, against 456.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1977, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.85%
$556
Food
2.92%
$580
Apparel
2.56%
$468
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 1977
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 1916–1977 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
1970–1977
6.58%
56.2%
$556
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $179 by
1946, on its way to $556 in 1977; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1977
In 1977, prices rose 6.5% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $556; the year's average CPI of 60.6 is the level
behind every 1977 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 1977, ticking back up from 1976’s
5.8% as the economic recovery strengthened, wages climbed, and energy costs
pushed higher again. The year opened with a warning about that energy
dependence: record cold across the Midwest and Northeast in January and
February strained natural gas supplies so badly that schools and factories in
several states shut down for days to conserve fuel. Jimmy Carter, inaugurated
that January, made energy policy a centerpiece of his presidency, and
Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Energy that August to
consolidate programs built up piecemeal since the 1973 oil embargo. Culture
offered some relief from the anxiety: released that May, Star Wars became the
highest-grossing film in history to that point, drawing lines around theater
blocks for months. The year also closed an era in a different way. Elvis
Presley was found dead at his Graceland home on August 16 at age 42, drawing
tens of thousands of mourners to Memphis. A median household earned $13,572
in 1977, a new home sold for a median $48,800, and gas averaged 62 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices stood 512.1% above their 1913 level,
with the energy anxieties of the year setting up the harder shocks of 1978
and 1979.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1977: $100 is worth $556 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1977/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1977. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1977/