$100 in 1916 is worth $1,398 in 1995,
because prices increased 1298.2% over that period, an average of
3.40% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,398
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1298.2%
Average inflation rate
3.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,398
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,298
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1916 → 1995
$1,398
$100 in 1995 → 1916
$7.15
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1995
Between 1916 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1298.2%, which works out to an average of
3.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1995: the 1916 dollar
lost 92.8% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 1995 at the same ratio, 13.98: $1,000 becomes
$13,982, and $10,000 becomes $139,817.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1995
$1.00
$13.98
$5.00
$69.91
$10.00
$140
$20.00
$280
$50.00
$699
$100
$1,398
$500
$6,991
$1,000
$13,982
$5,000
$69,908
$10,000
$139,817
$100,000
$1,398,165
$1,000,000
$13,981,651
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1995
Between 1916 and 1995, food rose the most, up 1213.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 685.7%, against 1298.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.40%
$1,398
Food
3.31%
$1,313
Apparel
2.64%
$786
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 1995
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 1916–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$1,398
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $250 by
1956, on its way to $1,398 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,398; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1995: $100 is worth $1,398 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1995/