$100 in 1917 is worth $174 in 1947,
because prices increased 74.2% over that period, an average of
1.87% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$174
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
74.2%
Average inflation rate
1.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$174
Price difference ($100 base)
$74.22
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1917 → 1947
$174
$100 in 1947 → 1917
$57.40
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1947
Between 1917 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 74.2%, which works out to an average of
1.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1947: the 1917 dollar
lost 42.6% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.74: $1,000 becomes
$1,742, and $10,000 becomes $17,422.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.74
$5.00
$8.71
$10.00
$17.42
$20.00
$34.84
$50.00
$87.11
$100
$174
$500
$871
$1,000
$1,742
$5,000
$8,711
$10,000
$17,422
$100,000
$174,219
$1,000,000
$1,742,188
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1947
Between 1917 and 1947, apparel rose the most, up 97.5%, while food rose the least, up 66.2%, against 74.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.87%
$174
Apparel
2.29%
$198
Food
1.71%
$166
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 1947
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 1917–1947 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
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$174
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $107 by
1932, on its way to $174 in 1947; 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 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $174; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1947: $100 is worth $174 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1947/