$100 in 1917 is worth $1,226 in 1996,
because prices increased 1125.8% over that period, an average of
3.22% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$1,226
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1125.8%
Average inflation rate
3.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,226
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,126
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1917 → 1996
$1,226
$100 in 1996 → 1917
$8.16
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1996
Between 1917 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1125.8%, which works out to an average of
3.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1996: the 1917 dollar
lost 91.8% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 1996 at the same ratio, 12.26: $1,000 becomes
$12,258, and $10,000 becomes $122,578.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1996
$1.00
$12.26
$5.00
$61.29
$10.00
$123
$20.00
$245
$50.00
$613
$100
$1,226
$500
$6,129
$1,000
$12,258
$5,000
$61,289
$10,000
$122,578
$100,000
$1,225,781
$1,000,000
$12,257,813
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1996
Between 1917 and 1996, food rose the most, up 957.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 552.0%, against 1125.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.22%
$1,226
Food
3.03%
$1,057
Apparel
2.40%
$652
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 1996
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 1917–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,226
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $220 by
1957, on its way to $1,226 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $1,226; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,226 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1996/