$100 in 1917 is worth $134 in 1929,
because prices increased 33.6% over that period, an average of
2.44% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1929
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.6%
Average inflation rate
2.44% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.59
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1929
17.1
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1929
0.00%
$100 in 1917 → 1929
$134
$100 in 1929 → 1917
$74.85
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1929
Between 1917 and 1929, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.6%, which works out to an average of
2.44% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1929: the 1917 dollar
lost 25.1% of its purchasing power over
these 12 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 1929 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,336, and $10,000 becomes $13,359.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1929
$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, 1917–1929
Between 1917 and 1929, apparel rose the most, up 22.3%, while food rose the least, up 13.8%, against 33.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1929, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.44%
$134
Apparel
1.69%
$122
Food
1.08%
$114
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 1929
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1929 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1917, at end
1917–1920
16.04%
56.3%
$156
1920–1929
-1.73%
-14.5%
$134
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $134 by
1923, on its way to $134 in 1929; 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 1929, prices rose 0.0% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $134; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1929 figure on this page.
Consumer prices were unchanged in 1929, the CPI’s annual average flat for
the second time in six years and a fitting close to a decade that began with
wartime inflation and ended in rough price stability. By year’s end the
index stood 14.5% below its 1920 peak and roughly 73% above its
1913 starting point, a reminder that even a “stable” decade
left prices well above where they had started. The stability in the cost of
living masked what was building in financial markets. The National Bureau
of Economic Research dates the start of the Great Depression to that
August, the month the business cycle peaked, months before most Americans
noticed anything was wrong. The break came that October: panic selling hit
Wall Street on Black Thursday, October 24, and returned even worse on Black
Tuesday, October 29, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 12% in
a single session. Billions of dollars in paper wealth disappeared within
days, and the crash marked the start of a downturn that would pull consumer
prices into their steepest sustained decline of the 20th century over the
next four years. First-class postage was still 2 cents, a price that would
hold until 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1929: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1929/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1929. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1929/