$100 in 1917 is worth $272 in 1968,
because prices increased 171.9% over that period, an average of
1.98% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$272
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
171.9%
Average inflation rate
1.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$272
Price difference ($100 base)
$172
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1917 → 1968
$272
$100 in 1968 → 1917
$36.78
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1968
Between 1917 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 171.9%, which works out to an average of
1.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1968: the 1917 dollar
lost 63.2% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1968 at the same ratio, 2.72: $1,000 becomes
$2,719, and $10,000 becomes $27,187.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.72
$5.00
$13.59
$10.00
$27.19
$20.00
$54.37
$50.00
$136
$100
$272
$500
$1,359
$1,000
$2,719
$5,000
$13,594
$10,000
$27,187
$100,000
$271,875
$1,000,000
$2,718,750
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1968
Between 1917 and 1968, apparel rose the most, up 165.8%, while food rose the least, up 143.4%, against 171.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.98%
$272
Apparel
1.94%
$266
Food
1.76%
$243
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 1968
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 1917–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$272
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $135 by
1943, on its way to $272 in 1968; 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: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $272; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1968: $100 is worth $272 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1968/