$100 in 1916 is worth $1,688 in 2003,
because prices increased 1588.1% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,688
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1588.1%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,688
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,588
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1916 → 2003
$1,688
$100 in 2003 → 1916
$5.92
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2003
Between 1916 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1588.1%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2003: the 1916 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2003 at the same ratio, 16.88: $1,000 becomes
$16,881, and $10,000 becomes $168,807.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2003
$1.00
$16.88
$5.00
$84.40
$10.00
$169
$20.00
$338
$50.00
$844
$100
$1,688
$500
$8,440
$1,000
$16,881
$5,000
$84,404
$10,000
$168,807
$100,000
$1,688,073
$1,000,000
$16,880,734
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2003
Between 1916 and 2003, food rose the most, up 1492.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 619.6%, against 1588.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$1,688
Food
3.23%
$1,593
Apparel
2.29%
$720
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 2003
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 1916–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,688
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $274 by
1961, on its way to $1,688 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,688; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,688 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2003/