$100 in 1918 is worth $132 in 1920,
because prices increased 32.5% over that period, an average of
15.09% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$132
in 1920
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
32.5%
Average inflation rate
15.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$132
Price difference ($100 base)
$32.45
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1920
20
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
$100 in 1918 → 1920
$132
$100 in 1920 → 1918
$75.50
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1920
Between 1918 and 1920, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 20.
Cumulatively, prices increased 32.5%, which works out to an average of
15.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.76 buys in 1920: the 1918 dollar
lost 24.5% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
1918 brought the steepest annual price increase the CPI had recorded:
consumer prices rose 18.0% for the year, edging out 1917’s already sharp
17.4% as the economy stayed at full wartime mobilization for most of the
year. A first-class stamp cost 3 cents, up from 2 cents the previous
November under the War Revenue Act’s wartime tax increases. The war itself
ended on November 11, when Germany signed an armistice with the Allied
powers after more than four years of fighting in Europe, but the inflation
built up over a year and a half of mobilization did not disappear along with
the fighting. The bigger public health story that year was the influenza
pandemic that reached the U.S. in a mild spring wave and then returned that
fall in a far deadlier form, eventually killing roughly 675,000 Americans,
more than the country’s combat losses in the war. It hit factories, docks,
and shops alongside households, adding disruption to an economy already
strained by wartime demand. Prices would keep climbing even after the
armistice, into the postwar surge of 1919.
Every 1918 amount converts to 1920 at the same ratio, 1.32: $1,000 becomes
$1,325, and $10,000 becomes $13,245.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1920
$1.00
$1.32
$5.00
$6.62
$10.00
$13.25
$20.00
$26.49
$50.00
$66.23
$100
$132
$500
$662
$1,000
$1,325
$5,000
$6,623
$10,000
$13,245
$100,000
$132,450
$1,000,000
$1,324,503
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1920
Between 1918 and 1920, apparel rose the most, up 57.9%, while food rose the least, up 25.7%, against 32.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1920, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
15.09%
$132
Apparel
25.65%
$158
Food
12.14%
$126
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1918: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $115 by
1919, on its way to $132 in 1920; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, and the smallest rise was 14.6% in 1919.
In 1920, prices rose 15.6% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $132; the year's average CPI of 20 is the level
behind every 1920 figure on this page.
1920 was the last year of the inflation that had built since the war began:
consumer prices rose 15.6% for the year, leaving the CPI more than double its
1913 starting level after seven straight years of increases.
The boom behind those increases turned to bust before the year was over. The
Federal Reserve, worried about speculation, pushed its discount rate to a
record 7% that spring, and wholesale prices, which had led the wartime
runup, began collapsing within months. The National Bureau of Economic
Research dates the resulting downturn from January 1920 to July 1921, one of
the shortest but steepest contractions in U.S. history, and consumer prices
followed into outright decline, falling 10.5% in 1921. Two constitutional
changes reshaped the country that year, too. The 18th Amendment’s ban on
alcohol took legal effect January 17, enforced under the Volstead Act
Congress had passed the previous October. Then, on August 18, Tennessee’s
ratification of the 19th Amendment secured women’s right to vote nationwide,
and women cast ballots in a presidential election for the first time that
November, when Warren Harding won on a promise to return the country to
“normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic, and rising prices. First-class
postage held at 2 cents, unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1920: $100 is worth $132 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1920/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1920. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1920/