$100 in 1917 is worth $1,158 in 1994,
because prices increased 1057.8% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$1,158
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1057.8%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,158
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,058
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1917 → 1994
$1,158
$100 in 1994 → 1917
$8.64
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1994
Between 1917 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1057.8%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1994: the 1917 dollar
lost 91.4% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 1994 at the same ratio, 11.58: $1,000 becomes
$11,578, and $10,000 becomes $115,781.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1994
$1.00
$11.58
$5.00
$57.89
$10.00
$116
$20.00
$232
$50.00
$579
$100
$1,158
$500
$5,789
$1,000
$11,578
$5,000
$57,891
$10,000
$115,781
$100,000
$1,157,812
$1,000,000
$11,578,125
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1994
Between 1917 and 1994, food rose the most, up 895.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 560.4%, against 1057.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$1,158
Food
3.03%
$995
Apparel
2.48%
$660
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 1994
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 1917–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$1,158
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $220 by
1957, on its way to $1,158 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $1,158; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1994: $100 is worth $1,158 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1994/