$100 in 1917 is worth $1,129 in 1993,
because prices increased 1028.9% over that period, an average of
3.24% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$1,129
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1028.9%
Average inflation rate
3.24% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,129
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,029
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1917 → 1993
$1,129
$100 in 1993 → 1917
$8.86
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1993
Between 1917 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1028.9%, which works out to an average of
3.24% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1993: the 1917 dollar
lost 91.1% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 1993 at the same ratio, 11.29: $1,000 becomes
$11,289, and $10,000 becomes $112,891.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1993
$1.00
$11.29
$5.00
$56.45
$10.00
$113
$20.00
$226
$50.00
$564
$100
$1,129
$500
$5,645
$1,000
$11,289
$5,000
$56,445
$10,000
$112,891
$100,000
$1,128,906
$1,000,000
$11,289,063
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1993
Between 1917 and 1993, food rose the most, up 871.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 561.9%, against 1028.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.24%
$1,129
Food
3.04%
$972
Apparel
2.52%
$662
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 1993
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 1917–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$1,021
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$1,129
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $220 by
1957, on its way to $1,129 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $1,129; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1993: $100 is worth $1,129 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1993/