$100 in 1917 is worth $109 in 1939,
because prices increased 8.6% over that period, an average of
0.38% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$109
in 1939
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.6%
Average inflation rate
0.38% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$109
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.59
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1939
13.9
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
$100 in 1917 → 1939
$109
$100 in 1939 → 1917
$92.09
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1939
Between 1917 and 1939, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.6%, which works out to an average of
0.38% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.92 buys in 1939: the 1917 dollar
lost 7.9% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1939 at the same ratio, 1.09: $1,000 becomes
$1,086, and $10,000 becomes $10,859.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1939
$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, 1917–1939
Between 1917 and 1939, apparel rose the most, up 6.9%, while food fell 18.6%, against 8.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1939, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.38%
$109
Apparel
0.31%
$107
Food
-0.93%
$81.38
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 1939
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1930s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1939 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
1930–1939
-2.02%
-16.8%
$109
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $134 by
1928, on its way to $109 in 1939; 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 1939, prices fell 1.4% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $109; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1939 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1939: $100 is worth $109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1939/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1939. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1939/