$100 in 1917 is worth $152 in 1946,
because prices increased 52.3% over that period, an average of
1.46% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$152
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
52.3%
Average inflation rate
1.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$152
Price difference ($100 base)
$52.34
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1917 → 1946
$152
$100 in 1946 → 1917
$65.64
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1946
Between 1917 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 52.3%, which works out to an average of
1.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1946: the 1917 dollar
lost 34.4% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.52: $1,000 becomes
$1,523, and $10,000 becomes $15,234.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.52
$5.00
$7.62
$10.00
$15.23
$20.00
$30.47
$50.00
$76.17
$100
$152
$500
$762
$1,000
$1,523
$5,000
$7,617
$10,000
$15,234
$100,000
$152,344
$1,000,000
$1,523,438
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1946
Between 1917 and 1946, apparel rose the most, up 70.3%, while food rose the least, up 36.6%, against 52.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.46%
$152
Apparel
1.85%
$170
Food
1.08%
$137
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 1946
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 1917–1946 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
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$152
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $119 by
1931, on its way to $152 in 1946; 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 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $152; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1946: $100 is worth $152 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1946/