$100 in 1918 is worth $90.73 in 1932,
because prices declined 9.3% over that period, an average of
0.69% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$90.73
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-9.3%
Average inflation rate
-0.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$90.73
Price difference ($100 base)
-$9.27
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1918 → 1932
$90.73
$100 in 1932 → 1918
$110
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1932
Between 1918 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 9.3%, which works out to an average of
-0.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$1.10 buys in 1932: the 1918 dollar
gained 10.2% in purchasing power over
these 14 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 1932 at the same ratio, 0.91: $1,000 becomes
$907, and $10,000 becomes $9,073.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1932
$1.00
$0.91
$5.00
$4.54
$10.00
$9.07
$20.00
$18.15
$50.00
$45.36
$100
$90.73
$500
$454
$1,000
$907
$5,000
$4,536
$10,000
$9,073
$100,000
$90,728
$1,000,000
$907,285
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1932
Every category fell between 1918 and 1932: food the most, down 35.9%, and apparel the least, down 28.6%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.69%
$90.73
Apparel
-2.37%
$71.43
Food
-3.13%
$64.07
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 1932
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1930s (9.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1932 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
1930–1932
-9.43%
-18.0%
$90.73
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $116 by
1925, on its way to $90.73 in 1932; 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 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $90.73; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1932: $100 is worth $90.73 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1932/