$100 in 1917 is worth $969 in 1989,
because prices increased 868.8% over that period, an average of
3.20% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$969
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
868.8%
Average inflation rate
3.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$969
Price difference ($100 base)
$869
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1917 → 1989
$969
$100 in 1989 → 1917
$10.32
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1989
Between 1917 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 868.8%, which works out to an average of
3.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1989: the 1917 dollar
lost 89.7% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 1989 at the same ratio, 9.69: $1,000 becomes
$9,688, and $10,000 becomes $96,875.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1989
$1.00
$9.69
$5.00
$48.44
$10.00
$96.88
$20.00
$194
$50.00
$484
$100
$969
$500
$4,844
$1,000
$9,688
$5,000
$48,438
$10,000
$96,875
$100,000
$968,750
$1,000,000
$9,687,500
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1989
Between 1917 and 1989, food rose the most, up 762.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 487.1%, against 868.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.20%
$969
Food
3.04%
$863
Apparel
2.49%
$587
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 1989
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 1917–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$969
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $207 by
1952, on its way to $969 in 1989; 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: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $969; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1989: $100 is worth $969 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1989/