$100 in 1917 is worth $509 in 1978,
because prices increased 409.4% over that period, an average of
2.70% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$509
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
409.4%
Average inflation rate
2.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$509
Price difference ($100 base)
$409
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1917 → 1978
$509
$100 in 1978 → 1917
$19.63
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1978
Between 1917 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 409.4%, which works out to an average of
2.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1978: the 1917 dollar
lost 80.4% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1978 at the same ratio, 5.09: $1,000 becomes
$5,094, and $10,000 becomes $50,938.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1978
$1.00
$5.09
$5.00
$25.47
$10.00
$50.94
$20.00
$102
$50.00
$255
$100
$509
$500
$2,547
$1,000
$5,094
$5,000
$25,469
$10,000
$50,938
$100,000
$509,375
$1,000,000
$5,093,750
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1978
Between 1917 and 1978, food rose the most, up 396.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 303.0%, against 409.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.70%
$509
Food
2.66%
$497
Apparel
2.31%
$403
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 1978
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 1917–1978 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$303
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$509
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $174 by
1947, on its way to $509 in 1978; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $509; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1978: $100 is worth $509 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1978/