$100 in 1917 is worth $567 in 1979,
because prices increased 467.2% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$567
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
467.2%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$567
Price difference ($100 base)
$467
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1917 → 1979
$567
$100 in 1979 → 1917
$17.63
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1979
Between 1917 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 467.2%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1979: the 1917 dollar
lost 82.4% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1979 at the same ratio, 5.67: $1,000 becomes
$5,672, and $10,000 becomes $56,719.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1979
$1.00
$5.67
$5.00
$28.36
$10.00
$56.72
$20.00
$113
$50.00
$284
$100
$567
$500
$2,836
$1,000
$5,672
$5,000
$28,359
$10,000
$56,719
$100,000
$567,187
$1,000,000
$5,671,875
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1979
Between 1917 and 1979, food rose the most, up 451.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 320.3%, against 467.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$567
Food
2.79%
$551
Apparel
2.34%
$420
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 1979
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 1917–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$567
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $174 by
1947, on its way to $567 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $567; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1979: $100 is worth $567 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1979/