$100 in 1917 is worth $1,302 in 1999,
because prices increased 1201.6% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$1,302
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1201.6%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,302
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,202
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1917 → 1999
$1,302
$100 in 1999 → 1917
$7.68
What happened to prices between 1917 and 1999
Between 1917 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1201.6%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.08 buys in 1999: the 1917 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 1999 at the same ratio, 13.02: $1,000 becomes
$13,016, and $10,000 becomes $130,156.
Amount in 1917
Value in 1999
$1.00
$13.02
$5.00
$65.08
$10.00
$130
$20.00
$260
$50.00
$651
$100
$1,302
$500
$6,508
$1,000
$13,016
$5,000
$65,078
$10,000
$130,156
$100,000
$1,301,562
$1,000,000
$13,015,625
Inflation by spending category, 1917–1999
Between 1917 and 1999, food rose the most, up 1031.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 550.0%, against 1201.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$1,302
Food
3.00%
$1,132
Apparel
2.31%
$650
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 1999
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 1917–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,302
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $220 by
1957, on its way to $1,302 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $1,302; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,302 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-1999/