$100 in 1917 is worth $924 in 1988,
because prices increased 824.2% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$924
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
824.2%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$924
Price difference ($100 base)
$824
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1917 → 1988
$924
$100 in 1988 → 1917
$10.82
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1988
Between 1917 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 824.2%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1988: the 1917 dollar
lost 89.2% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 1988 at the same ratio, 9.24: $1,000 becomes
$9,242, and $10,000 becomes $92,422.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1988
$1.00
$9.24
$5.00
$46.21
$10.00
$92.42
$20.00
$185
$50.00
$462
$100
$924
$500
$4,621
$1,000
$9,242
$5,000
$46,211
$10,000
$92,422
$100,000
$924,219
$1,000,000
$9,242,188
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1988
Between 1917 and 1988, food rose the most, up 715.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 471.3%, against 824.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$924
Food
3.00%
$815
Apparel
2.48%
$571
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 1988
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 1917–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$924
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $207 by
1952, on its way to $924 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $924; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1988: $100 is worth $924 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1988/