$100 in 1917 is worth $130 in 1930,
because prices increased 30.5% over that period, an average of
2.07% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$130
in 1930
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
30.5%
Average inflation rate
2.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$130
Price difference ($100 base)
$30.47
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1930
16.7
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1930
-2.34%
$100 in 1917 → 1930
$130
$100 in 1930 → 1917
$76.65
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1930
Between 1917 and 1930, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 16.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 30.5%, which works out to an average of
2.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1930: the 1917 dollar
lost 23.4% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1930 at the same ratio, 1.30: $1,000 becomes
$1,305, and $10,000 becomes $13,047.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1930
$1.00
$1.30
$5.00
$6.52
$10.00
$13.05
$20.00
$26.09
$50.00
$65.23
$100
$130
$500
$652
$1,000
$1,305
$5,000
$6,523
$10,000
$13,047
$100,000
$130,469
$1,000,000
$1,304,687
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1930
Between 1917 and 1930, apparel rose the most, up 19.8%, while food rose the least, up 7.6%, against 30.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1930, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.07%
$130
Apparel
1.40%
$120
Food
0.56%
$108
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 1930
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1930 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1917, at end
1917–1920
16.04%
56.3%
$156
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$130
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $134 by
1923, on its way to $130 in 1930; 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 1930, prices fell 2.3% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $130; the year's average CPI of 16.7 is the level
behind every 1930 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.3% in 1930, a mild decline compared with what was
coming but the first sign that the summer 1929 downturn was not going to be
short. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that contraction from
August 1929, and by the time it finally bottomed out in March 1933 it would
run 43 months, the longest of any downturn in the NBER’s chronology back to
1854. Congress made the trade picture worse in June, when President Hoover
signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, raising duties on more than 20,000
imported goods to some of the highest levels in a century. Trading partners
retaliated with tariffs of their own, and global trade volumes collapsed
over the next several years, deepening a downturn economists still debate
how much the tariff itself worsened. The financial system cracked that fall:
a regional banking panic culminated in the December 11 failure of the Bank
of United States in New York, at the time the largest bank failure in
American history, wiping out more than $200 million in deposits. It was the
first of four banking panics that would hit the country before 1933 was
out. Consumer prices still stood 68.7% above their 1913
starting point, but the direction had clearly turned. First-class postage
held at 2 cents, unchanged for eleven straight years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1930: $100 is worth $130 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1930/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1930. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1930/