$100 in 1917 is worth $2,022 in 2020,
because prices increased 1922.0% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$2,022
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1922.0%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,022
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,922
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1917 → 2020
$2,022
$100 in 2020 → 1917
$4.95
What happened to prices between 1917 and 2020
Between 1917 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1922.0%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2020: the 1917 dollar
lost 95.1% of its purchasing power over
these 103 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 2020 at the same ratio, 20.22: $1,000 becomes
$20,220, and $10,000 becomes $202,196.
Amount in 1917
Value in 2020
$1.00
$20.22
$5.00
$101
$10.00
$202
$20.00
$404
$50.00
$1,011
$100
$2,022
$500
$10,110
$1,000
$20,220
$5,000
$101,098
$10,000
$202,196
$100,000
$2,021,961
$1,000,000
$20,219,609
Inflation by spending category, 1917–2020
Between 1917 and 2020, food rose the most, up 1742.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 484.5%, against 1922.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$2,022
Food
2.87%
$1,843
Apparel
1.73%
$585
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 2020
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 1917–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$2,022
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $261 by
1967, on its way to $2,022 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $2,022; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 2020: $100 is worth $2,022 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2020/