$100 in 1916 is worth $1,792 in 2005,
because prices increased 1691.7% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,792
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1691.7%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,792
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,692
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1916 → 2005
$1,792
$100 in 2005 → 1916
$5.58
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2005
Between 1916 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1691.7%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2005: the 1916 dollar
lost 94.4% of its purchasing power over
these 89 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 2005 at the same ratio, 17.92: $1,000 becomes
$17,917, and $10,000 becomes $179,174.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2005
$1.00
$17.92
$5.00
$89.59
$10.00
$179
$20.00
$358
$50.00
$896
$100
$1,792
$500
$8,959
$1,000
$17,917
$5,000
$89,587
$10,000
$179,174
$100,000
$1,791,743
$1,000,000
$17,917,431
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2005
Between 1916 and 2005, food rose the most, up 1587.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 611.3%, against 1691.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$1,792
Food
3.23%
$1,688
Apparel
2.23%
$711
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 2005
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 1916–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,792
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $274 by
1961, on its way to $1,792 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,792; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,792 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2005/