$100 in 1918 is worth $86.09 in 1933,
because prices declined 13.9% over that period, an average of
0.99% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$86.09
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-13.9%
Average inflation rate
-0.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$86.09
Price difference ($100 base)
-$13.91
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1918 → 1933
$86.09
$100 in 1933 → 1918
$116
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1933
Between 1918 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices declined 13.9%, which works out to an average of
-0.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$1.16 buys in 1933: the 1918 dollar
gained 16.2% in purchasing power over
these 15 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 1933 at the same ratio, 0.86: $1,000 becomes
$861, and $10,000 becomes $8,609.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1933
$1.00
$0.86
$5.00
$4.30
$10.00
$8.61
$20.00
$17.22
$50.00
$43.05
$100
$86.09
$500
$430
$1,000
$861
$5,000
$4,305
$10,000
$8,609
$100,000
$86,093
$1,000,000
$860,927
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1933
Every category fell between 1918 and 1933: food the most, down 37.7%, and apparel the least, down 31.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.99%
$86.09
Apparel
-2.46%
$68.86
Food
-3.11%
$62.28
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 1933
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1933 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
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$86.09
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $116 by
1925, on its way to $86.09 in 1933; 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 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $86.09; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1933: $100 is worth $86.09 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1933/