$100 in 1916 is worth $1,250 in 1991,
because prices increased 1149.5% over that period, an average of
3.42% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,250
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1149.5%
Average inflation rate
3.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,250
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,150
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1916 → 1991
$1,250
$100 in 1991 → 1916
$8.00
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1991
Between 1916 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1149.5%, which works out to an average of
3.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1991: the 1916 dollar
lost 92.0% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 1991 at the same ratio, 12.50: $1,000 becomes
$12,495, and $10,000 becomes $124,954.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1991
$1.00
$12.50
$5.00
$62.48
$10.00
$125
$20.00
$250
$50.00
$625
$100
$1,250
$500
$6,248
$1,000
$12,495
$5,000
$62,477
$10,000
$124,954
$100,000
$1,249,541
$1,000,000
$12,495,413
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1991
Between 1916 and 1991, food rose the most, up 1106.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 666.1%, against 1149.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.42%
$1,250
Food
3.38%
$1,206
Apparel
2.75%
$766
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 1991
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 1916–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$1,250
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $239 by
1951, on its way to $1,250 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,250; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1991: $100 is worth $1,250 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1991/