$100 in 1918 is worth $101 in 1931,
because prices increased 0.7% over that period, an average of
0.05% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1931
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.7%
Average inflation rate
0.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.66
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1931
15.2
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
$100 in 1918 → 1931
$101
$100 in 1931 → 1918
$99.34
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1931
Between 1918 and 1931, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 15.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.7%, which works out to an average of
0.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1931: the 1918 dollar
lost 0.7% of its purchasing power over
these 13 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 1931 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,007, and $10,000 becomes $10,066.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1931
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.03
$10.00
$10.07
$20.00
$20.13
$50.00
$50.33
$100
$101
$500
$503
$1,000
$1,007
$5,000
$5,033
$10,000
$10,066
$100,000
$100,662
$1,000,000
$1,006,623
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1931
Every category fell between 1918 and 1931: food the most, down 22.8%, and apparel the least, down 19.4%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1931, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.05%
$101
Apparel
-1.65%
$80.59
Food
-1.97%
$77.25
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 1931
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1930s (9.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1931 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1918, at end
1918–1920
15.09%
32.5%
$132
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$111
1930–1931
-8.98%
-9.0%
$101
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $113 by
1924, on its way to $101 in 1931; 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 1931, prices fell 9.0% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 15.2 is the level
behind every 1931 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1931: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1931/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1931. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1931/