$100 in 1917 is worth $1,191 in 1995,
because prices increased 1090.6% over that period, an average of
3.23% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$1,191
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1090.6%
Average inflation rate
3.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,191
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,091
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1917 → 1995
$1,191
$100 in 1995 → 1917
$8.40
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1995
Between 1917 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1090.6%, which works out to an average of
3.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1995: the 1917 dollar
lost 91.6% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 1995 at the same ratio, 11.91: $1,000 becomes
$11,906, and $10,000 becomes $119,063.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1995
$1.00
$11.91
$5.00
$59.53
$10.00
$119
$20.00
$238
$50.00
$595
$100
$1,191
$500
$5,953
$1,000
$11,906
$5,000
$59,531
$10,000
$119,063
$100,000
$1,190,625
$1,000,000
$11,906,250
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1995
Between 1917 and 1995, food rose the most, up 923.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 553.5%, against 1090.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.23%
$1,191
Food
3.03%
$1,023
Apparel
2.44%
$653
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 1995
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 1917–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$1,191
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $220 by
1957, on its way to $1,191 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $1,191; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1995: $100 is worth $1,191 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1995/