$100 in 1916 is worth $2,954 in 2025,
because prices increased 2853.6% over that period, an average of
3.15% a year.
$100 in 1916 has
the same buying power as
$2,954
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2853.6%
Average inflation rate
3.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,954
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,854
CPI in 1916
10.9
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1916
7.92%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1916 → 2025
$2,954
$100 in 2025 → 1916
$3.39
What happened to prices between 1916 and 2025
Between 1916 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 10.9 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2853.6%, which works out to an average of
3.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1916 bought what
$0.03 buys in 2025: the 1916 dollar
lost 96.6% of its purchasing power over
these 109 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 2025 at the same ratio, 29.54: $1,000 becomes
$29,536, and $10,000 becomes $295,361.
Amount in 1916
Value in 2025
$1.00
$29.54
$5.00
$148
$10.00
$295
$20.00
$591
$50.00
$1,477
$100
$2,954
$500
$14,768
$1,000
$29,536
$5,000
$147,680
$10,000
$295,361
$100,000
$2,953,606
$1,000,000
$29,536,055
Inflation by spending category, 1916–2025
Between 1916 and 2025, food rose the most, up 2904.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 681.6%, against 2853.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1916
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1916 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.15%
$2,954
Food
3.17%
$3,005
Apparel
1.90%
$782
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 2025
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 1916–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$2,954
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1916
$100 from 1916 had already become $372 by
1971, on its way to $2,954 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1916 had the buying
power of $2,954; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1916 to 2025: $100 is worth $2,954 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1916 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1916-to-2025/