$100 in 1916 is worth $2,795 in 2023,
because prices increased 2695.4% over that period, an average of
3.16% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,795
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2695.4%
Average inflation rate
3.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,795
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,695
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1916 → 2023
$2,795
$100 in 2023 → 1916
$3.58
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2023
Between 1916 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2695.4%, which works out to an average of
3.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.04 buys in 2023: the 1916 dollar
lost 96.4% of its purchasing power over
these 107 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 2023 at the same ratio, 27.95: $1,000 becomes
$27,954, and $10,000 becomes $279,543.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2023
$1.00
$27.95
$5.00
$140
$10.00
$280
$20.00
$559
$50.00
$1,398
$100
$2,795
$500
$13,977
$1,000
$27,954
$5,000
$139,772
$10,000
$279,543
$100,000
$2,795,431
$1,000,000
$27,954,312
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2023
Between 1916 and 2023, food rose the most, up 2758.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 677.3%, against 2695.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.16%
$2,795
Food
3.18%
$2,858
Apparel
1.93%
$777
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 2023
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 1916–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$2,374
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$2,795
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $372 by
1971, on its way to $2,795 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,795; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2023: $100 is worth $2,795 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2023/