$100 in 1917 is worth $134 in 1923,
because prices increased 33.6% over that period, an average of
4.95% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1923
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.6%
Average inflation rate
4.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.59
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1923
17.1
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
$100 in 1917 → 1923
$134
$100 in 1923 → 1917
$74.85
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1923
Between 1917 and 1923, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.6%, which works out to an average of
4.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1923: the 1917 dollar
lost 25.1% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1923 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,336, and $10,000 becomes $13,359.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1923
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.68
$10.00
$13.36
$20.00
$26.72
$50.00
$66.80
$100
$134
$500
$668
$1,000
$1,336
$5,000
$6,680
$10,000
$13,359
$100,000
$133,594
$1,000,000
$1,335,938
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1923
Between 1917 and 1923, apparel rose the most, up 34.2%, while food rose the least, up 6.2%, against 33.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1923, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
4.95%
$134
Apparel
5.02%
$134
Food
1.01%
$106
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–).
Decade by decade: 1917 to 1923
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (5.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1923 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1917, at end
1917–1920
16.04%
56.3%
$156
1920–1923
-5.09%
-14.5%
$134
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $156 by
1920, on its way to $134 in 1923; 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.
In 1923, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $134; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1923 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1923: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1923/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1923. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1923/