$100 in 1916 is worth $1,042 in 1987,
because prices increased 942.2% over that period, an average of
3.36% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,042
in 1987
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
942.2%
Average inflation rate
3.36% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,042
Price difference ($100 base)
$942
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1987
113.6
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1987
3.65%
$100 in 1916 → 1987
$1,042
$100 in 1987 → 1916
$9.60
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1987
Between 1916 and 1987, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 113.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 942.2%, which works out to an average of
3.36% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1987: the 1916 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 1987 at the same ratio, 10.42: $1,000 becomes
$10,422, and $10,000 becomes $104,220.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1987
$1.00
$10.42
$5.00
$52.11
$10.00
$104
$20.00
$208
$50.00
$521
$100
$1,042
$500
$5,211
$1,000
$10,422
$5,000
$52,110
$10,000
$104,220
$100,000
$1,042,202
$1,000,000
$10,422,018
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1987
Between 1916 and 1987, food rose the most, up 904.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 558.3%, against 942.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1987, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.36%
$1,042
Food
3.30%
$1,004
Apparel
2.69%
$658
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 1987
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 1916–1987 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
1980–1987
4.69%
37.9%
$1,042
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $239 by
1951, on its way to $1,042 in 1987; 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: 1987
In 1987, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,042; the year's average CPI of 113.6 is the level
behind every 1987 figure on this page.
1987 tested whether the disinflation of the 1980s could survive its first
real shock. Paul Volcker, who had run the Federal Reserve since 1979 and
driven inflation down from 13.5% to routine mid-single digits, handed the
chairmanship to Alan Greenspan in August. Inflation for the year came in at
3.6%, edging up as the expansion entered its fifth year and a weaker
dollar, following 1985’s Plaza Accord, pushed up the price of imported
goods. Then, on October 19, the stock market delivered Greenspan’s first
crisis: the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 22.6% in a single session,
still the largest one-day percentage drop in its history, as computer-driven
“portfolio insurance” trading amplified a global sell-off that had started
days earlier. The Fed responded within 24 hours, publicly pledging to
supply whatever liquidity the banking system needed, and the panic did not
spread to the broader economy. Growth continued and unemployment kept
falling through the rest of the year. It was an early demonstration of what
became known as the “Greenspan put,” a Fed willing to move fast and loosen
policy to contain financial shocks even while still watching inflation,
that shaped central banking for the next two decades.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1987: $100 is worth $1,042 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1987/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1987. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1987/