$100 in 1917 is worth $102 in 1933,
because prices increased 1.6% over that period, an average of
0.10% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$102
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1.6%
Average inflation rate
0.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$102
Price difference ($100 base)
$1.56
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1917 → 1933
$102
$100 in 1933 → 1917
$98.46
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1933
Between 1917 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1.6%, which works out to an average of
0.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.98 buys in 1933: the 1917 dollar
lost 1.5% of its purchasing power over
these 16 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 1933 at the same ratio, 1.02: $1,000 becomes
$1,016, and $10,000 becomes $10,156.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1933
$1.00
$1.02
$5.00
$5.08
$10.00
$10.16
$20.00
$20.31
$50.00
$50.78
$100
$102
$500
$508
$1,000
$1,016
$5,000
$5,078
$10,000
$10,156
$100,000
$101,563
$1,000,000
$1,015,625
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1933
Every category fell between 1917 and 1933: food the most, down 28.3%, and apparel the least, down 6.9%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.10%
$102
Apparel
-0.45%
$93.07
Food
-2.06%
$71.72
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 1933
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1933 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
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$102
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $137 by
1925, on its way to $102 in 1933; 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 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $102; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1933: $100 is worth $102 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1933/