$100 in 1916 is worth $1,199 in 1990,
because prices increased 1099.1% over that period, an average of
3.41% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,199
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1099.1%
Average inflation rate
3.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,199
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,099
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1916 → 1990
$1,199
$100 in 1990 → 1916
$8.34
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1990
Between 1916 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1099.1%, which works out to an average of
3.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1990: the 1916 dollar
lost 91.7% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 1990 at the same ratio, 11.99: $1,000 becomes
$11,991, and $10,000 becomes $119,908.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1990
$1.00
$11.99
$5.00
$59.95
$10.00
$120
$20.00
$240
$50.00
$600
$100
$1,199
$500
$5,995
$1,000
$11,991
$5,000
$59,954
$10,000
$119,908
$100,000
$1,199,083
$1,000,000
$11,990,826
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1990
Between 1916 and 1990, food rose the most, up 1071.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 638.7%, against 1099.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.41%
$1,199
Food
3.38%
$1,172
Apparel
2.74%
$739
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 1990
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 1916–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,199
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $239 by
1951, on its way to $1,199 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,199; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1990: $100 is worth $1,199 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1990/