$100 in 1916 is worth $1,650 in 2002,
because prices increased 1550.5% over that period, an average of
3.31% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,650
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1550.5%
Average inflation rate
3.31% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,650
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,550
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1916 → 2002
$1,650
$100 in 2002 → 1916
$6.06
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2002
Between 1916 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1550.5%, which works out to an average of
3.31% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2002: the 1916 dollar
lost 93.9% of its purchasing power over
these 86 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 2002 at the same ratio, 16.50: $1,000 becomes
$16,505, and $10,000 becomes $165,046.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2002
$1.00
$16.50
$5.00
$82.52
$10.00
$165
$20.00
$330
$50.00
$825
$100
$1,650
$500
$8,252
$1,000
$16,505
$5,000
$82,523
$10,000
$165,046
$100,000
$1,650,459
$1,000,000
$16,504,587
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2002
Between 1916 and 2002, food rose the most, up 1459.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 638.1%, against 1550.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.31%
$1,650
Food
3.25%
$1,559
Apparel
2.35%
$738
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 2002
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 1916–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,650
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $274 by
1961, on its way to $1,650 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,650; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,650 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2002/