$100 in 1918 is worth $116 in 1925,
because prices increased 15.9% over that period, an average of
2.13% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$116
in 1925
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
15.9%
Average inflation rate
2.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$116
Price difference ($100 base)
$15.89
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1925
17.5
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
$100 in 1918 → 1925
$116
$100 in 1925 → 1918
$86.29
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1925
Between 1918 and 1925, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 17.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 15.9%, which works out to an average of
2.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1925: the 1918 dollar
lost 13.7% of its purchasing power over
these 7 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 1925 at the same ratio, 1.16: $1,000 becomes
$1,159, and $10,000 becomes $11,589.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1925
$1.00
$1.16
$5.00
$5.79
$10.00
$11.59
$20.00
$23.18
$50.00
$57.95
$100
$116
$500
$579
$1,000
$1,159
$5,000
$5,795
$10,000
$11,589
$100,000
$115,894
$1,000,000
$1,158,940
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1925
Every category fell between 1918 and 1925: apparel the most, down 3.7%, and food the least, down 1.2%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1925, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.13%
$116
Food
-0.17%
$98.80
Apparel
-0.53%
$96.34
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 1925
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.6% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1925 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1918, at end
1918–1920
15.09%
32.5%
$132
1920–1925
-2.64%
-12.5%
$116
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $119 by
1921, on its way to $116 in 1925; 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 1925, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $116; the year's average CPI of 17.5 is the level
behind every 1925 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1925, the CPI’s largest single-year increase
since the deflationary swings of the early 1920s, though still mild next to
the double-digit inflation of the World War I years. The country’s cultural
fault lines were on full display that summer in Dayton, Tennessee, where
high school teacher John Scopes was tried July 10-21 for violating a state
law against teaching evolution, a case that drew national press coverage and
pitted prosecutor William Jennings Bryan against defense attorney Clarence
Darrow. Real estate speculation, meanwhile, peaked in Florida, where buyers
flipped undeveloped land in the Miami area on thin down payments, driving
prices far above what the land itself could support; the bubble would
collapse the following year. Detroit reshuffled that June too: Walter
Chrysler reorganized the struggling Maxwell Motor Company into Chrysler
Corporation, the start of what would become one of the American auto
industry’s “Big Three.” First-class postage held at 2 cents for the sixth
straight year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1925: $100 is worth $116 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1925/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1925. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1925/