$100 in 1917 is worth $220 in 1957,
because prices increased 119.5% over that period, an average of
1.99% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$220
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
119.5%
Average inflation rate
1.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$220
Price difference ($100 base)
$120
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1917 → 1957
$220
$100 in 1957 → 1917
$45.55
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1957
Between 1917 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 119.5%, which works out to an average of
1.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.46 buys in 1957: the 1917 dollar
lost 54.4% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1957 at the same ratio, 2.20: $1,000 becomes
$2,195, and $10,000 becomes $21,953.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1957
$1.00
$2.20
$5.00
$10.98
$10.00
$21.95
$20.00
$43.91
$50.00
$110
$100
$220
$500
$1,098
$1,000
$2,195
$5,000
$10,977
$10,000
$21,953
$100,000
$219,531
$1,000,000
$2,195,313
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1957
Between 1917 and 1957, apparel rose the most, up 120.3%, while food rose the least, up 99.3%, against 119.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.99%
$220
Apparel
1.99%
$220
Food
1.74%
$199
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 1957
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 1917–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$220
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $113 by
1937, on its way to $220 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $220; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1957: $100 is worth $220 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1957/