$100 in 1917 is worth $115 in 1941,
because prices increased 14.8% over that period, an average of
0.58% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$115
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
14.8%
Average inflation rate
0.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$115
Price difference ($100 base)
$14.84
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1917 → 1941
$115
$100 in 1941 → 1917
$87.07
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1941
Between 1917 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 14.8%, which works out to an average of
0.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.87 buys in 1941: the 1917 dollar
lost 12.9% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1941 at the same ratio, 1.15: $1,000 becomes
$1,148, and $10,000 becomes $11,484.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1941
$1.00
$1.15
$5.00
$5.74
$10.00
$11.48
$20.00
$22.97
$50.00
$57.42
$100
$115
$500
$574
$1,000
$1,148
$5,000
$5,742
$10,000
$11,484
$100,000
$114,844
$1,000,000
$1,148,437
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1941
Between 1917 and 1941, apparel rose the most, up 12.9%, while food fell 9.7%, against 14.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.58%
$115
Apparel
0.51%
$113
Food
-0.42%
$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 1941
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 16.04% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1917–1941 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
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$109
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$115
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $134 by
1929, on its way to $115 in 1941; 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 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $115; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1941: $100 is worth $115 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1941/