$100 in 1917 is worth $2,117 in 2021,
because prices increased 2017.0% over that period, an average of
2.98% a year.
$100 in 1917 has
the same buying power as
$2,117
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2017.0%
Average inflation rate
2.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,117
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,017
CPI in 1917
12.8
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1917
17.43%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1917 → 2021
$2,117
$100 in 2021 → 1917
$4.72
What happened to prices between 1917 and 2021
Between 1917 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 12.8 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2017.0%, which works out to an average of
2.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1917 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2021: the 1917 dollar
lost 95.3% of its purchasing power over
these 104 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 2021 at the same ratio, 21.17: $1,000 becomes
$21,170, and $10,000 becomes $211,695.
Amount in 1917
Value in 2021
$1.00
$21.17
$5.00
$106
$10.00
$212
$20.00
$423
$50.00
$1,058
$100
$2,117
$500
$10,585
$1,000
$21,170
$5,000
$105,848
$10,000
$211,695
$100,000
$2,116,953
$1,000,000
$21,169,531
Inflation by spending category, 1917–2021
Between 1917 and 2021, food rose the most, up 1815.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 499.0%, against 2017.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1917
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1917 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.98%
$2,117
Food
2.88%
$1,916
Apparel
1.74%
$599
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 2021
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 1917–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$2,117
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1917
$100 from 1917 had already become $261 by
1967, on its way to $2,117 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1917 had the buying
power of $2,117; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1917 to 2021: $100 is worth $2,117 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1917 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1917-to-2021/