$100 in 1917 is worth $138 in 1926,
because prices increased 38.3% over that period, an average of
3.67% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 1926
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
38.3%
Average inflation rate
3.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$38.28
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1926
17.7
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
$100 in 1917 → 1926
$138
$100 in 1926 → 1917
$72.32
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1926
Between 1917 and 1926, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 17.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 38.3%, which works out to an average of
3.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.72 buys in 1926: the 1917 dollar
lost 27.7% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1926 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,383, and $10,000 becomes $13,828.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1926
$1.00
$1.38
$5.00
$6.91
$10.00
$13.83
$20.00
$27.66
$50.00
$69.14
$100
$138
$500
$691
$1,000
$1,383
$5,000
$6,914
$10,000
$13,828
$100,000
$138,281
$1,000,000
$1,382,812
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1926
Between 1917 and 1926, apparel rose the most, up 28.2%, while food rose the least, up 17.2%, against 38.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1926, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.67%
$138
Apparel
2.80%
$128
Food
1.78%
$117
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 1926
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1926 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1917, at end
1917–1920
16.04%
56.3%
$156
1920–1926
-2.02%
-11.5%
$138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $140 by
1921, on its way to $138 in 1926; 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 1926, prices rose 1.1% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 17.7 is the level
behind every 1926 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.1% in 1926, a third straight year of mild inflation
and part of the price stability that defined the middle of the decade.
Florida’s real estate boom, which had peaked the previous year on
speculative buying of undeveloped land, ended abruptly that September when
the Great Miami Hurricane made landfall near the city, killing hundreds and
wrecking the market for land whose value had rested on continued
speculation rather than anything underneath it. In Detroit, Henry Ford moved
his company to a five-day, 40-hour work week without cutting pay, a break
from the standard six-day schedule that other large employers would
gradually adopt over the following decades; Ford argued publicly that
workers with more leisure time would also become better customers for the
cars his factories built. Consumer prices remained low enough by historical
standards that a first-class stamp still cost just 2 cents, the same price
it had held since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1926: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1926/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1926. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1926/