$100 in 1916 is worth $1,472 in 1997,
because prices increased 1372.5% over that period, an average of
3.38% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,472
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1372.5%
Average inflation rate
3.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,472
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,372
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1916 → 1997
$1,472
$100 in 1997 → 1916
$6.79
What happened to prices between 1916 and 1997
Between 1916 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1372.5%, which works out to an average of
3.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.07 buys in 1997: the 1916 dollar
lost 93.2% of its purchasing power over
these 81 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 1997 at the same ratio, 14.72: $1,000 becomes
$14,725, and $10,000 becomes $147,248.
Amount in 1916
Value in 1997
$1.00
$14.72
$5.00
$73.62
$10.00
$147
$20.00
$294
$50.00
$736
$100
$1,472
$500
$7,362
$1,000
$14,725
$5,000
$73,624
$10,000
$147,248
$100,000
$1,472,477
$1,000,000
$14,724,771
Inflation by spending category, 1916–1997
Between 1916 and 1997, food rose the most, up 1292.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 691.1%, against 1372.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.38%
$1,472
Food
3.30%
$1,392
Apparel
2.59%
$791
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 1997
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 1916–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,472
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $250 by
1956, on its way to $1,472 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,472; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,472 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-1997/