$100 in 1916 is worth $2,249 in 2017,
because prices increased 2148.8% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,249
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2148.8%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,249
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,149
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1916 → 2017
$2,249
$100 in 2017 → 1916
$4.45
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2017
Between 1916 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2148.8%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2017: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.6% of its purchasing power over
these 101 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 2017 at the same ratio, 22.49: $1,000 becomes
$22,488, and $10,000 becomes $224,881.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2017
$1.00
$22.49
$5.00
$112
$10.00
$225
$20.00
$450
$50.00
$1,124
$100
$2,249
$500
$11,244
$1,000
$22,488
$5,000
$112,440
$10,000
$224,881
$100,000
$2,248,807
$1,000,000
$22,488,073
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2017
Between 1916 and 2017, food rose the most, up 2113.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 647.7%, against 2148.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$2,249
Food
3.11%
$2,213
Apparel
2.01%
$748
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 2017
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 1916–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$2,249
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $297 by
1966, on its way to $2,249 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,249; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2017: $100 is worth $2,249 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2017/