$100 in 1917 is worth $110 in 1938,
because prices increased 10.2% over that period, an average of
0.46% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$110
in 1938
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
10.2%
Average inflation rate
0.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$110
Price difference ($100 base)
$10.16
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1938
14.1
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
$100 in 1917 → 1938
$110
$100 in 1938 → 1917
$90.78
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1938
Between 1917 and 1938, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 14.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 10.2%, which works out to an average of
0.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.91 buys in 1938: the 1917 dollar
lost 9.2% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1938 at the same ratio, 1.10: $1,000 becomes
$1,102, and $10,000 becomes $11,016.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1938
$1.00
$1.10
$5.00
$5.51
$10.00
$11.02
$20.00
$22.03
$50.00
$55.08
$100
$110
$500
$551
$1,000
$1,102
$5,000
$5,508
$10,000
$11,016
$100,000
$110,156
$1,000,000
$1,101,563
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1938
Between 1917 and 1938, apparel rose the most, up 8.4%, while food fell 16.6%, against 10.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1938, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.46%
$110
Apparel
0.39%
$108
Food
-0.86%
$83.45
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 1938
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 1917–1938 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
1930–1938
-2.09%
-15.6%
$110
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $136 by
1927, on its way to $110 in 1938; 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 1938, prices fell 2.1% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $110; the year's average CPI of 14.1 is the level
behind every 1938 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1938: $100 is worth $110 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1938/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1938. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1938/