$100 in 1917 is worth $138 in 1944,
because prices increased 37.5% over that period, an average of
1.19% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.5%
Average inflation rate
1.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.50
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1917 → 1944
$138
$100 in 1944 → 1917
$72.73
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1944
Between 1917 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.5%, which works out to an average of
1.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1944: the 1917 dollar
lost 27.3% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,375, and $10,000 becomes $13,750.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.38
$5.00
$6.88
$10.00
$13.75
$20.00
$27.50
$50.00
$68.75
$100
$138
$500
$688
$1,000
$1,375
$5,000
$6,875
$10,000
$13,750
$100,000
$137,500
$1,000,000
$1,375,000
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1944
Between 1917 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 47.5%, while food rose the least, up 16.6%, against 37.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.19%
$138
Apparel
1.45%
$148
Food
0.57%
$117
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 1944
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 1917–1944 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
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$138
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $130 by
1930, on its way to $138 in 1944; 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 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1944: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1944/