$100 in 1916 is worth $2,172 in 2014,
because prices increased 2071.9% over that period, an average of
3.19% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,172
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2071.9%
Average inflation rate
3.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,172
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,072
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1916 → 2014
$2,172
$100 in 2014 → 1916
$4.60
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2014
Between 1916 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2071.9%, which works out to an average of
3.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2014: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.4% of its purchasing power over
these 98 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 2014 at the same ratio, 21.72: $1,000 becomes
$21,719, and $10,000 becomes $217,189.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2014
$1.00
$21.72
$5.00
$109
$10.00
$217
$20.00
$434
$50.00
$1,086
$100
$2,172
$500
$10,859
$1,000
$21,719
$5,000
$108,594
$10,000
$217,189
$100,000
$2,171,890
$1,000,000
$21,718,899
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2014
Between 1916 and 2014, food rose the most, up 2048.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 659.0%, against 2071.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.19%
$2,172
Food
3.18%
$2,148
Apparel
2.09%
$759
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 2014
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 1916–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$2,172
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $297 by
1966, on its way to $2,172 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,172; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2014: $100 is worth $2,172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2014/