$100 in 1916 is worth $666 in 1979,
because prices increased 566.1% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$666
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
566.1%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$666
Price difference ($100 base)
$566
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1916 → 1979
$666
$100 in 1979 → 1916
$15.01
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1979
Between 1916 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 566.1%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1979: the 1916 dollar
lost 85.0% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 1979 at the same ratio, 6.66: $1,000 becomes
$6,661, and $10,000 becomes $66,606.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1979
$1.00
$6.66
$5.00
$33.30
$10.00
$66.61
$20.00
$133
$50.00
$333
$100
$666
$500
$3,330
$1,000
$6,661
$5,000
$33,303
$10,000
$66,606
$100,000
$666,055
$1,000,000
$6,660,550
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1979
Between 1916 and 1979, food rose the most, up 607.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 405.4%, against 566.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$666
Food
3.15%
$707
Apparel
2.60%
$505
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 1979
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 1916–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$666
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $179 by
1946, on its way to $666 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $666; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1979: $100 is worth $666 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1979/