$100 in 1916 is worth $1,968 in 2009,
because prices increased 1868.2% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$1,968
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1868.2%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,968
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,868
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1916 → 2009
$1,968
$100 in 2009 → 1916
$5.08
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2009
Between 1916 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1868.2%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2009: the 1916 dollar
lost 94.9% of its purchasing power over
these 93 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 2009 at the same ratio, 19.68: $1,000 becomes
$19,682, and $10,000 becomes $196,823.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2009
$1.00
$19.68
$5.00
$98.41
$10.00
$197
$20.00
$394
$50.00
$984
$100
$1,968
$500
$9,841
$1,000
$19,682
$5,000
$98,411
$10,000
$196,823
$100,000
$1,968,229
$1,000,000
$19,682,294
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2009
Between 1916 and 2009, food rose the most, up 1828.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 614.8%, against 1868.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$1,968
Food
3.23%
$1,929
Apparel
2.14%
$715
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 2009
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 1916–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,968
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $274 by
1961, on its way to $1,968 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $1,968; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,968 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2009/