$100 in 1916 is worth $2,106 in 2012,
because prices increased 2006.4% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,106
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2006.4%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,106
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,006
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1916 → 2012
$2,106
$100 in 2012 → 1916
$4.75
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2012
Between 1916 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2006.4%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2012: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.3% of its purchasing power over
these 96 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 2012 at the same ratio, 21.06: $1,000 becomes
$21,064, and $10,000 becomes $210,637.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2012
$1.00
$21.06
$5.00
$105
$10.00
$211
$20.00
$421
$50.00
$1,053
$100
$2,106
$500
$10,532
$1,000
$21,064
$5,000
$105,318
$10,000
$210,637
$100,000
$2,106,367
$1,000,000
$21,063,670
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2012
Between 1916 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1968.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 651.6%, against 2006.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$2,106
Food
3.21%
$2,069
Apparel
2.12%
$752
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 2012
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 1916–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$2,106
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $297 by
1966, on its way to $2,106 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,106; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2012: $100 is worth $2,106 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2012/