$100 in 1916 is worth $2,174 in 2015,
because prices increased 2074.5% over that period, an average of
3.16% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,174
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2074.5%
Average inflation rate
3.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,174
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,074
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1916 → 2015
$2,174
$100 in 2015 → 1916
$4.60
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2015
Between 1916 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2074.5%, which works out to an average of
3.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2015: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.4% of its purchasing power over
these 99 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 2015 at the same ratio, 21.74: $1,000 becomes
$21,745, and $10,000 becomes $217,447.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2015
$1.00
$21.74
$5.00
$109
$10.00
$217
$20.00
$435
$50.00
$1,087
$100
$2,174
$500
$10,872
$1,000
$21,745
$5,000
$108,723
$10,000
$217,447
$100,000
$2,174,468
$1,000,000
$21,744,679
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2015
Between 1916 and 2015, food rose the most, up 2087.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 649.4%, against 2074.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.16%
$2,174
Food
3.17%
$2,188
Apparel
2.06%
$749
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 2015
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 1916–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$2,174
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $297 by
1966, on its way to $2,174 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,174; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2015: $100 is worth $2,174 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2015/