$100 in 1917 is worth $119 in 1931,
because prices increased 18.7% over that period, an average of
1.24% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 1931
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
18.7%
Average inflation rate
1.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$18.75
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1931
15.2
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
$100 in 1917 → 1931
$119
$100 in 1931 → 1917
$84.21
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1931
Between 1917 and 1931, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 15.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 18.7%, which works out to an average of
1.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.84 buys in 1931: the 1917 dollar
lost 15.8% of its purchasing power over
these 14 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 1931 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,187, and $10,000 becomes $11,875.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1931
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.94
$10.00
$11.87
$20.00
$23.75
$50.00
$59.37
$100
$119
$500
$594
$1,000
$1,187
$5,000
$5,937
$10,000
$11,875
$100,000
$118,750
$1,000,000
$1,187,500
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1931
Between 1917 and 1931, apparel rose the most, up 8.9%, while food fell 11.0%, against 18.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1931, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.24%
$119
Apparel
0.61%
$109
Food
-0.83%
$88.97
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 1931
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1930s (9.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1931 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
1930–1931
-8.98%
-9.0%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $134 by
1924, on its way to $119 in 1931; 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 1931, prices fell 9.0% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $119; the year's average CPI of 15.2 is the level
behind every 1931 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1931: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1931/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1931. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1931/