$100 in 1917 is worth $107 in 1932,
because prices increased 7.0% over that period, an average of
0.45% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$107
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
7.0%
Average inflation rate
0.45% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$107
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.03
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1917 → 1932
$107
$100 in 1932 → 1917
$93.43
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1932
Between 1917 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 7.0%, which works out to an average of
0.45% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1932: the 1917 dollar
lost 6.6% of its purchasing power over
these 15 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 1932 at the same ratio, 1.07: $1,000 becomes
$1,070, and $10,000 becomes $10,703.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1932
$1.00
$1.07
$5.00
$5.35
$10.00
$10.70
$20.00
$21.41
$50.00
$53.52
$100
$107
$500
$535
$1,000
$1,070
$5,000
$5,352
$10,000
$10,703
$100,000
$107,031
$1,000,000
$1,070,312
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1932
Every category fell between 1917 and 1932: food the most, down 26.2%, and apparel the least, down 3.5%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.45%
$107
Apparel
-0.23%
$96.53
Food
-2.01%
$73.79
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 1932
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1930s (9.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1932 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
1930–1932
-9.43%
-18.0%
$107
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $134 by
1924, on its way to $107 in 1932; 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 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $107; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1932: $100 is worth $107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1932/