$100 in 1916 is worth $2,202 in 2016,
because prices increased 2101.9% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,202
in 2016
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2101.9%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,202
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,102
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2016
240.007
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2016
1.26%
$100 in 1916 → 2016
$2,202
$100 in 2016 → 1916
$4.54
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2016
Between 1916 and 2016, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 240.007.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2101.9%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2016: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.5% of its purchasing power over
these 100 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 2016 at the same ratio, 22.02: $1,000 becomes
$22,019, and $10,000 becomes $220,190.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2016
$1.00
$22.02
$5.00
$110
$10.00
$220
$20.00
$440
$50.00
$1,101
$100
$2,202
$500
$11,009
$1,000
$22,019
$5,000
$110,095
$10,000
$220,190
$100,000
$2,201,899
$1,000,000
$22,018,991
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2016
Between 1916 and 2016, food rose the most, up 2094.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 650.3%, against 2101.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2016, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$2,202
Food
3.14%
$2,194
Apparel
2.04%
$750
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 2016
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 1916–2016 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
2010–2016
1.61%
10.1%
$2,202
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $297 by
1966, on its way to $2,202 in 2016; 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: 2016
In 2016, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,202; the year's average CPI of 240.007 is the level
behind every 2016 figure on this page.
2016 opened with the cheapest oil in more than a decade and closed with a
change in political direction. Crude fell to about $26 a barrel in February,
and gasoline averaged $2.14 a gallon for the year, its lowest annual
average since 2004. Headline inflation was 1.3%, a modest rebound from 2015’s
0.1%, though prices excluding food and energy rose faster, driven by rents and
health care.
Median household income rose to $59,039, the second large gain in a row, and
the median new home sold for about $307,800. The federal minimum wage held at
$7.25, and a first-class stamp fell to 47 cents after a January rate cut, a
rare decrease.
Two votes changed the outlook. Britain’s June decision to leave the European
Union unsettled currency markets, and the U.S. election in November raised
expectations of tax cuts, deficits, and faster growth, sending long-term
interest rates higher. OPEC’s November output cut ended the oil slump, and the
Federal Reserve made its second rate increase in December, to 0.50–0.75%.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2016: $100 is worth $2,202 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2016/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2016. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2016/