$100 in 1916 is worth $1,975 in 2008,
because prices increased 1875.3% over that period, an average of
3.30% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,975
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1875.3%
Average inflation rate
3.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,975
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,875
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1916 → 2008
$1,975
$100 in 2008 → 1916
$5.06
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2008
Between 1916 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1875.3%, which works out to an average of
3.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2008: the 1916 dollar
lost 94.9% of its purchasing power over
these 92 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 2008 at the same ratio, 19.75: $1,000 becomes
$19,753, and $10,000 becomes $197,526.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2008
$1.00
$19.75
$5.00
$98.76
$10.00
$198
$20.00
$395
$50.00
$988
$100
$1,975
$500
$9,876
$1,000
$19,753
$5,000
$98,763
$10,000
$197,526
$100,000
$1,975,257
$1,000,000
$19,752,569
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2008
Between 1916 and 2008, food rose the most, up 1794.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 607.8%, against 1875.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.30%
$1,975
Food
3.25%
$1,895
Apparel
2.15%
$708
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 2008
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 1916–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$1,975
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $274 by
1961, on its way to $1,975 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,975; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2008: $100 is worth $1,975 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2008/