$100 in 1917 is worth $135 in 1919,
because prices increased 35.2% over that period, an average of
16.26% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1919
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
35.2%
Average inflation rate
16.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$35.16
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1919
17.3
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
$100 in 1917 → 1919
$135
$100 in 1919 → 1917
$73.99
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1919
Between 1917 and 1919, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 35.2%, which works out to an average of
16.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1919: the 1917 dollar
lost 26.0% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
1917 is when World War I inflation stopped being a background trend and
became the dominant fact of American economic life. Consumer prices rose
17.4% for the year, more than double the previous year’s already sharp
increase, as the country’s April 6 entry into the war layered federal war
spending on top of an economy already strained by military demand and
worker shortages. Congress paid for the war with the War Revenue Act that
October, which sharply raised income taxes, created a new tax on wartime
business profits, and, in a small but very visible change for ordinary
households, raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 2 cents to 3 cents
that November, the rate’s first move since 1885. Herbert Hoover took over
the new Food Administration in August and asked Americans to conserve food
voluntarily rather than face formal rationing, a campaign that became
famous enough that “Hooverize” entered the language as a verb for cutting
back. None of it slowed prices much: the 17.4% increase would be topped
again the very next year, in 1918.
Every 1917 amount converts to 1919 at the same ratio, 1.35: $1,000 becomes
$1,352, and $10,000 becomes $13,516.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1919
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.76
$10.00
$13.52
$20.00
$27.03
$50.00
$67.58
$100
$135
$500
$676
$1,000
$1,352
$5,000
$6,758
$10,000
$13,516
$100,000
$135,156
$1,000,000
$1,351,563
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1919
Between 1917 and 1919, apparel rose the most, up 79.2%, while food rose the least, up 28.3%, against 35.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1919, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
16.26%
$135
Apparel
33.87%
$179
Food
13.26%
$128
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1917: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $118 by
1918, on its way to $135 in 1919; 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 the smallest rise was 14.6% in 1919.
In 1919, prices rose 14.6% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1919 figure on this page.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1919: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1919/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1919. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1919/