$100 in 1916 is worth $2,345 in 2019,
because prices increased 2245.5% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,345
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2245.5%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,345
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,245
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1916 → 2019
$2,345
$100 in 2019 → 1916
$4.26
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2019
Between 1916 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2245.5%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2019: the 1916 dollar
lost 95.7% of its purchasing power over
these 103 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 2019 at the same ratio, 23.45: $1,000 becomes
$23,455, and $10,000 becomes $234,548.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2019
$1.00
$23.45
$5.00
$117
$10.00
$235
$20.00
$469
$50.00
$1,173
$100
$2,345
$500
$11,727
$1,000
$23,455
$5,000
$117,274
$10,000
$234,548
$100,000
$2,345,477
$1,000,000
$23,454,771
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2019
Between 1916 and 2019, food rose the most, up 2186.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 638.4%, against 2245.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$2,345
Food
3.08%
$2,286
Apparel
1.96%
$738
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 2019
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 1916–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$2,345
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $297 by
1966, on its way to $2,345 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,345; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2019: $100 is worth $2,345 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2019/