$100 in 1916 is worth $2,304 in 2018,
because prices increased 2203.7% over that period, an average of
3.12% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,304
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2203.7%
Average inflation rate
3.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,304
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,204
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1916 → 2018
$2,304
$100 in 2018 → 1916
$4.34
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2018
Between 1916 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2203.7%, which works out to an average of
3.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2018: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.7% of its purchasing power over
these 102 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 2018 at the same ratio, 23.04: $1,000 becomes
$23,037, and $10,000 becomes $230,373.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2018
$1.00
$23.04
$5.00
$115
$10.00
$230
$20.00
$461
$50.00
$1,152
$100
$2,304
$500
$11,519
$1,000
$23,037
$5,000
$115,187
$10,000
$230,373
$100,000
$2,303,734
$1,000,000
$23,037,339
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2018
Between 1916 and 2018, food rose the most, up 2143.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 647.9%, against 2203.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.12%
$2,304
Food
3.10%
$2,244
Apparel
1.99%
$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 2018
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 1916–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$2,304
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $297 by
1966, on its way to $2,304 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,304; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2018: $100 is worth $2,304 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2018/