$100 in 1917 is worth $141 in 1945,
because prices increased 40.6% over that period, an average of
1.23% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
40.6%
Average inflation rate
1.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.63
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1917 → 1945
$141
$100 in 1945 → 1917
$71.11
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1945
Between 1917 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 40.6%, which works out to an average of
1.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1945: the 1917 dollar
lost 28.9% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,406, and $10,000 becomes $14,063.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.03
$10.00
$14.06
$20.00
$28.13
$50.00
$70.31
$100
$141
$500
$703
$1,000
$1,406
$5,000
$7,031
$10,000
$14,063
$100,000
$140,625
$1,000,000
$1,406,250
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1945
Between 1917 and 1945, apparel rose the most, up 55.4%, while food rose the least, up 19.3%, against 40.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.23%
$141
Apparel
1.59%
$155
Food
0.63%
$119
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 1945
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 1917–1945 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
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$141
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $119 by
1931, on its way to $141 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $141; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1945: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1945/