$100 in 1916 is worth $834 in 1981,
because prices increased 733.9% over that period, an average of
3.32% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$834
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
733.9%
Average inflation rate
3.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$834
Price difference ($100 base)
$734
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1916 → 1981
$834
$100 in 1981 → 1916
$11.99
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1981
Between 1916 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 733.9%, which works out to an average of
3.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1981: the 1916 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1981 at the same ratio, 8.34: $1,000 becomes
$8,339, and $10,000 becomes $83,394.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1981
$1.00
$8.34
$5.00
$41.70
$10.00
$83.39
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$417
$100
$834
$500
$4,170
$1,000
$8,339
$5,000
$41,697
$10,000
$83,394
$100,000
$833,945
$1,000,000
$8,339,450
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1981
Between 1916 and 1981, food rose the most, up 728.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 467.3%, against 733.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.32%
$834
Food
3.31%
$828
Apparel
2.71%
$567
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 1981
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 1916–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$756
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$834
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $179 by
1946, on its way to $834 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $834; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1981: $100 is worth $834 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1981/