$100 in 1916 is worth $1,580 in 2000,
because prices increased 1479.8% over that period, an average of
3.34% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,580
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1479.8%
Average inflation rate
3.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,580
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,480
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1916 → 2000
$1,580
$100 in 2000 → 1916
$6.33
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2000
Between 1916 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1479.8%, which works out to an average of
3.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2000: the 1916 dollar
lost 93.7% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2000 at the same ratio, 15.80: $1,000 becomes
$15,798, and $10,000 becomes $157,982.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2000
$1.00
$15.80
$5.00
$78.99
$10.00
$158
$20.00
$316
$50.00
$790
$100
$1,580
$500
$7,899
$1,000
$15,798
$5,000
$78,991
$10,000
$157,982
$100,000
$1,579,817
$1,000,000
$15,798,165
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2000
Between 1916 and 2000, food rose the most, up 1385.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 671.4%, against 1479.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.34%
$1,580
Food
3.26%
$1,485
Apparel
2.46%
$771
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 2000
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 1916–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,580
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $250 by
1956, on its way to $1,580 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,580; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2000: $100 is worth $1,580 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2000/