$100 in 1917 is worth $231 in 1960,
because prices increased 131.3% over that period, an average of
1.97% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$231
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
131.3%
Average inflation rate
1.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$231
Price difference ($100 base)
$131
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1917 → 1960
$231
$100 in 1960 → 1917
$43.24
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1960
Between 1917 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 131.3%, which works out to an average of
1.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1960: the 1917 dollar
lost 56.8% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1960 at the same ratio, 2.31: $1,000 becomes
$2,313, and $10,000 becomes $23,125.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1960
$1.00
$2.31
$5.00
$11.56
$10.00
$23.13
$20.00
$46.25
$50.00
$116
$100
$231
$500
$1,156
$1,000
$2,313
$5,000
$11,563
$10,000
$23,125
$100,000
$231,250
$1,000,000
$2,312,500
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1960
Between 1917 and 1960, apparel rose the most, up 126.2%, while food rose the least, up 106.9%, against 131.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.97%
$231
Apparel
1.92%
$226
Food
1.71%
$207
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 1960
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 1917–1960 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$231
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $109 by
1939, on its way to $231 in 1960; 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: 1960
In 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $231; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1960: $100 is worth $231 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1960/