$100 in 1917 is worth $209 in 1955,
because prices increased 109.4% over that period, an average of
1.96% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$209
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
109.4%
Average inflation rate
1.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$209
Price difference ($100 base)
$109
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1917 → 1955
$209
$100 in 1955 → 1917
$47.76
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1955
Between 1917 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 109.4%, which works out to an average of
1.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1955: the 1917 dollar
lost 52.2% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1955 at the same ratio, 2.09: $1,000 becomes
$2,094, and $10,000 becomes $20,938.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1955
$1.00
$2.09
$5.00
$10.47
$10.00
$20.94
$20.00
$41.88
$50.00
$105
$100
$209
$500
$1,047
$1,000
$2,094
$5,000
$10,469
$10,000
$20,938
$100,000
$209,375
$1,000,000
$2,093,750
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1955
Between 1917 and 1955, apparel rose the most, up 112.4%, while food rose the least, up 91.7%, against 109.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.96%
$209
Apparel
2.00%
$212
Food
1.73%
$192
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 1955
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 1917–1955 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$188
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$209
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $107 by
1935, on its way to $209 in 1955; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1955
In 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $209; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1955: $100 is worth $209 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1955/