$100 in 1917 is worth $1,757 in 2011,
because prices increased 1657.3% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$1,757
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1657.3%
Average inflation rate
3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,757
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,657
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1917 → 2011
$1,757
$100 in 2011 → 1917
$5.69
What happened to prices between 1917 and 2011
Between 1917 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1657.3%, which works out to an average of
3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2011: the 1917 dollar
lost 94.3% of its purchasing power over
these 94 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 2011 at the same ratio, 17.57: $1,000 becomes
$17,573, and $10,000 becomes $175,734.
Amount in 1917
Value in 2011
$1.00
$17.57
$5.00
$87.87
$10.00
$176
$20.00
$351
$50.00
$879
$100
$1,757
$500
$8,787
$1,000
$17,573
$5,000
$87,867
$10,000
$175,734
$100,000
$1,757,336
$1,000,000
$17,573,359
Inflation by spending category, 1917–2011
Between 1917 and 2011, food rose the most, up 1471.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 504.5%, against 1657.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.10%
$1,757
Food
2.97%
$1,571
Apparel
1.93%
$605
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 2011
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 1917–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,704
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,757
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $236 by
1962, on its way to $1,757 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $1,757; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,757 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2011/