$100 in 1917 is worth $812 in 1984,
because prices increased 711.7% over that period, an average of
3.17% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$812
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
711.7%
Average inflation rate
3.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$812
Price difference ($100 base)
$712
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1917 → 1984
$812
$100 in 1984 → 1917
$12.32
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1984
Between 1917 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 711.7%, which works out to an average of
3.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1984: the 1917 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 67 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 1984 at the same ratio, 8.12: $1,000 becomes
$8,117, and $10,000 becomes $81,172.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1984
$1.00
$8.12
$5.00
$40.59
$10.00
$81.17
$20.00
$162
$50.00
$406
$100
$812
$500
$4,059
$1,000
$8,117
$5,000
$40,586
$10,000
$81,172
$100,000
$811,719
$1,000,000
$8,117,188
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1984
Between 1917 and 1984, food rose the most, up 611.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 405.4%, against 711.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.17%
$812
Food
2.97%
$712
Apparel
2.45%
$505
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 1984
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 1917–1984 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$644
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$812
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $207 by
1952, on its way to $812 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $812; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1984: $100 is worth $812 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1984/