$100 in 1918 is worth $119 in 1921,
because prices increased 18.5% over that period, an average of
5.83% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 1921
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
18.5%
Average inflation rate
5.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$18.54
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1921
17.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
$100 in 1918 → 1921
$119
$100 in 1921 → 1918
$84.36
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1921
Between 1918 and 1921, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 17.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 18.5%, which works out to an average of
5.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.84 buys in 1921: the 1918 dollar
lost 15.6% of its purchasing power over
these 3 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 1921 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,185, and $10,000 becomes $11,854.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1921
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.93
$10.00
$11.85
$20.00
$23.71
$50.00
$59.27
$100
$119
$500
$593
$1,000
$1,185
$5,000
$5,927
$10,000
$11,854
$100,000
$118,543
$1,000,000
$1,185,430
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1921
Between 1918 and 1921, apparel rose the most, up 21.6%, while food fell 4.8%, against 18.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1921, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.83%
$119
Apparel
6.74%
$122
Food
-1.62%
$95.21
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–).
Decade by decade: 1918 to 1921
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1920s (10.5% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1921 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1918, at end
1918–1920
15.09%
32.5%
$132
1920–1921
-10.50%
-10.5%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $115 by
1919, on its way to $119 in 1921; 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 prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1921, prices fell 10.5% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $119; the year's average CPI of 17.9 is the level
behind every 1921 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the mirror image of the wartime
inflation that had more than doubled the cost of living between
1913 and 1920. The Depression of 1920-21, one
of the sharpest contractions in U.S. history, bottomed out that July
according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, even though it had
lasted barely eighteen months. Unemployment climbed toward one worker in ten
as businesses cut production and prices to work through wartime inventories,
but the same collapse in prices also meant the recovery, once it started,
had room to run without reigniting inflation. Warren Harding took office
March 4, promising a return to “normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic,
labor unrest, and rapid price swings; his administration moved quickly to
cut top income tax rates and federal spending. Congress also acted on
immigration that year: the Emergency Quota Act, signed May 19, capped annual
arrivals from each country at 3% of that nationality’s population in the
1910 census, the first time the United States had set a numerical ceiling on
immigration. The law favored northern and western Europe and cut total
immigration by more than half compared with prewar levels; Congress
tightened the formula again in 1924. First-class postage held at 2 cents,
unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1921: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1921/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1921. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1921/