$100 in 1918 is worth $115 in 1927,
because prices increased 15.2% over that period, an average of
1.59% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$115
in 1927
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
15.2%
Average inflation rate
1.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$115
Price difference ($100 base)
$15.23
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1927
17.4
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
$100 in 1918 → 1927
$115
$100 in 1927 → 1918
$86.78
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1927
Between 1918 and 1927, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 17.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 15.2%, which works out to an average of
1.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.87 buys in 1927: the 1918 dollar
lost 13.2% of its purchasing power over
these 9 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 1927 at the same ratio, 1.15: $1,000 becomes
$1,152, and $10,000 becomes $11,523.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1927
$1.00
$1.15
$5.00
$5.76
$10.00
$11.52
$20.00
$23.05
$50.00
$57.62
$100
$115
$500
$576
$1,000
$1,152
$5,000
$5,762
$10,000
$11,523
$100,000
$115,232
$1,000,000
$1,152,318
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1927
Every category fell between 1918 and 1927: apparel the most, down 7.3%, and food the least, down 1.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1927, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.59%
$115
Food
-0.20%
$98.20
Apparel
-0.84%
$92.67
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 1927
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1927 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1918, at end
1918–1920
15.09%
32.5%
$132
1920–1927
-1.97%
-13.0%
$115
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $111 by
1922, on its way to $115 in 1927; 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 1927, prices fell 1.7% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $115; the year's average CPI of 17.4 is the level
behind every 1927 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1927: $100 is worth $115 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1927/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1927. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1927/