$100 in 1917 is worth $287 in 1969,
because prices increased 186.7% over that period, an average of
2.05% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$287
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
186.7%
Average inflation rate
2.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$287
Price difference ($100 base)
$187
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1917 → 1969
$287
$100 in 1969 → 1917
$34.88
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1969
Between 1917 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 186.7%, which works out to an average of
2.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.35 buys in 1969: the 1917 dollar
lost 65.1% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.87: $1,000 becomes
$2,867, and $10,000 becomes $28,672.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.87
$5.00
$14.34
$10.00
$28.67
$20.00
$57.34
$50.00
$143
$100
$287
$500
$1,434
$1,000
$2,867
$5,000
$14,336
$10,000
$28,672
$100,000
$286,719
$1,000,000
$2,867,188
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1969
Between 1917 and 1969, apparel rose the most, up 181.2%, while food rose the least, up 155.9%, against 186.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.05%
$287
Apparel
2.01%
$281
Food
1.82%
$256
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 1969
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 1917–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$287
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $135 by
1943, on its way to $287 in 1969; 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: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $287; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1969: $100 is worth $287 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1969/