$100 in 1917 is worth $113 in 1937,
because prices increased 12.5% over that period, an average of
0.59% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$113
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
12.5%
Average inflation rate
0.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$113
Price difference ($100 base)
$12.50
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1917 → 1937
$113
$100 in 1937 → 1917
$88.89
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1937
Between 1917 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 12.5%, which works out to an average of
0.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.89 buys in 1937: the 1917 dollar
lost 11.1% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1937 at the same ratio, 1.13: $1,000 becomes
$1,125, and $10,000 becomes $11,250.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1937
$1.00
$1.13
$5.00
$5.63
$10.00
$11.25
$20.00
$22.50
$50.00
$56.25
$100
$113
$500
$563
$1,000
$1,125
$5,000
$5,625
$10,000
$11,250
$100,000
$112,500
$1,000,000
$1,125,000
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1937
Between 1917 and 1937, apparel rose the most, up 8.9%, while food fell 9.7%, against 12.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.59%
$113
Apparel
0.43%
$109
Food
-0.51%
$90.34
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 1937
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1937 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
1930–1937
-2.09%
-13.8%
$113
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $136 by
1927, on its way to $113 in 1937; 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 1937, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $113; the year's average CPI of 14.4 is the level
behind every 1937 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1937: $100 is worth $113 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1937/