$100 in 1916 is worth $2,001 in 2010,
because prices increased 1900.5% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,001
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1900.5%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,001
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,901
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1916 → 2010
$2,001
$100 in 2010 → 1916
$5.00
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2010
Between 1916 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1900.5%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2010: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.0% of its purchasing power over
these 94 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 2010 at the same ratio, 20.01: $1,000 becomes
$20,005, and $10,000 becomes $200,051.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2010
$1.00
$20.01
$5.00
$100
$10.00
$200
$20.00
$400
$50.00
$1,000
$100
$2,001
$500
$10,003
$1,000
$20,005
$5,000
$100,026
$10,000
$200,051
$100,000
$2,000,514
$1,000,000
$20,005,138
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2010
Between 1916 and 2010, food rose the most, up 1843.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 611.3%, against 1900.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$2,001
Food
3.21%
$1,944
Apparel
2.11%
$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 2010
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 1916–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$2,001
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $274 by
1961, on its way to $2,001 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,001; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2010: $100 is worth $2,001 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2010/