$100 in 1917 is worth $109 in 1936,
because prices increased 8.6% over that period, an average of
0.43% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$109
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.6%
Average inflation rate
0.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$109
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.59
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1917 → 1936
$109
$100 in 1936 → 1917
$92.09
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1936
Between 1917 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.6%, which works out to an average of
0.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.92 buys in 1936: the 1917 dollar
lost 7.9% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1936 at the same ratio, 1.09: $1,000 becomes
$1,086, and $10,000 becomes $10,859.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1936
$1.00
$1.09
$5.00
$5.43
$10.00
$10.86
$20.00
$21.72
$50.00
$54.30
$100
$109
$500
$543
$1,000
$1,086
$5,000
$5,430
$10,000
$10,859
$100,000
$108,594
$1,000,000
$1,085,938
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1936
Between 1917 and 1936, apparel rose the most, up 4.0%, while food fell 13.1%, against 8.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.43%
$109
Apparel
0.20%
$104
Food
-0.74%
$86.90
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 1936
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1936 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
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$109
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $138 by
1926, on its way to $109 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $109; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1936: $100 is worth $109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1936/