$100 in 1917 is worth $261 in 1967,
because prices increased 160.9% over that period, an average of
1.94% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$261
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
160.9%
Average inflation rate
1.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$261
Price difference ($100 base)
$161
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1917 → 1967
$261
$100 in 1967 → 1917
$38.32
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1967
Between 1917 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 160.9%, which works out to an average of
1.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.38 buys in 1967: the 1917 dollar
lost 61.7% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1967 at the same ratio, 2.61: $1,000 becomes
$2,609, and $10,000 becomes $26,094.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1967
$1.00
$2.61
$5.00
$13.05
$10.00
$26.09
$20.00
$52.19
$50.00
$130
$100
$261
$500
$1,305
$1,000
$2,609
$5,000
$13,047
$10,000
$26,094
$100,000
$260,937
$1,000,000
$2,609,375
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1967
Between 1917 and 1967, apparel rose the most, up 152.5%, while food rose the least, up 135.2%, against 160.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.94%
$261
Apparel
1.87%
$252
Food
1.73%
$235
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 1967
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 1917–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$261
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $115 by
1941, on its way to $261 in 1967; 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: 1967
In 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $261; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1967: $100 is worth $261 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1967/