$100 in 1918 is worth $113 in 1924,
because prices increased 13.2% over that period, an average of
2.09% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$113
in 1924
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
13.2%
Average inflation rate
2.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$113
Price difference ($100 base)
$13.25
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1924
17.1
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
$100 in 1918 → 1924
$113
$100 in 1924 → 1918
$88.30
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1924
Between 1918 and 1924, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 13.2%, which works out to an average of
2.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.88 buys in 1924: the 1918 dollar
lost 11.7% of its purchasing power over
these 6 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 1924 at the same ratio, 1.13: $1,000 becomes
$1,132, and $10,000 becomes $11,325.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1924
$1.00
$1.13
$5.00
$5.66
$10.00
$11.32
$20.00
$22.65
$50.00
$56.62
$100
$113
$500
$566
$1,000
$1,132
$5,000
$5,662
$10,000
$11,325
$100,000
$113,245
$1,000,000
$1,132,450
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1924
Every category fell between 1918 and 1924: food the most, down 9.0%, and apparel the least, down 1.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1924, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.09%
$113
Apparel
-0.31%
$98.17
Food
-1.56%
$91.02
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 1924
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1920s (3.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1924 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1918, at end
1918–1920
15.09%
32.5%
$132
1920–1924
-3.84%
-14.5%
$113
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $119 by
1921, on its way to $113 in 1924; 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 1924, prices rose 0.0% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $113; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1924 figure on this page.
Consumer prices held flat in 1924, the CPI’s annual average unchanged from
1923 after swinging from a sharp postwar drop to a modest rise the year
before. That stability, extending the calm that had settled in after the
deflation of 1921 and 1922, became a defining feature of the rest of the
decade. Congress tightened immigration policy further with the Immigration
Act of 1924, signed May 26, which cut the national-origins quota from 3% of
each nationality’s 1910 census population to 2% of its 1890 population,
shifting admissions further toward northern and western Europe and
effectively excluding most immigration from Asia. Abroad, the U.S.-backed
Dawes Plan, adopted that August, reorganized Germany’s war reparations
payments and opened the way for American loans into the German economy,
helping stabilize European currencies after the hyperinflation that had
peaked in 1923. At home, Calvin Coolidge, who had served out
the remainder of Warren Harding’s term after his death the previous year,
won a full term of his own that November, campaigning on continued
prosperity and limited government. First-class postage remained at 2 cents,
a price unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1924: $100 is worth $113 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1924/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1924. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1924/