$100 in 1917 is worth $1,676 in 2009,
because prices increased 1576.1% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$1,676
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1576.1%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,676
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,576
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1917 → 2009
$1,676
$100 in 2009 → 1917
$5.97
What happened to prices between 1917 and 2009
Between 1917 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1576.1%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2009: the 1917 dollar
lost 94.0% of its purchasing power over
these 92 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 2009 at the same ratio, 16.76: $1,000 becomes
$16,761, and $10,000 becomes $167,607.
Amount in 1917
Value in 2009
$1.00
$16.76
$5.00
$83.80
$10.00
$168
$20.00
$335
$50.00
$838
$100
$1,676
$500
$8,380
$1,000
$16,761
$5,000
$83,804
$10,000
$167,607
$100,000
$1,676,070
$1,000,000
$16,760,703
Inflation by spending category, 1917–2009
Between 1917 and 2009, food rose the most, up 1403.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 494.4%, against 1576.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$1,676
Food
2.99%
$1,503
Apparel
1.96%
$594
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 2009
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 1917–2009 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,345
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,676
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $236 by
1962, on its way to $1,676 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $1,676; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,676 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2009/