$100 in 1918 is worth $88.74 in 1934,
because prices declined 11.3% over that period, an average of
0.74% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$88.74
in 1934
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-11.3%
Average inflation rate
-0.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$88.74
Price difference ($100 base)
-$11.26
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1934
13.4
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
$100 in 1918 → 1934
$88.74
$100 in 1934 → 1918
$113
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1934
Between 1918 and 1934, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 13.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 11.3%, which works out to an average of
-0.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$1.13 buys in 1934: the 1918 dollar
gained 12.7% in purchasing power over
these 16 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 1934 at the same ratio, 0.89: $1,000 becomes
$887, and $10,000 becomes $8,874.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1934
$1.00
$0.89
$5.00
$4.44
$10.00
$8.87
$20.00
$17.75
$50.00
$44.37
$100
$88.74
$500
$444
$1,000
$887
$5,000
$4,437
$10,000
$8,874
$100,000
$88,742
$1,000,000
$887,417
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1934
Every category fell between 1918 and 1934: food the most, down 30.5%, and apparel the least, down 24.5%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1934, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.74%
$88.74
Apparel
-1.74%
$75.46
Food
-2.25%
$69.46
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 1934
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1930s (5.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1934 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
1930–1934
-5.36%
-19.8%
$88.74
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $117 by
1926, on its way to $88.74 in 1934; 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 1934, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $88.74; the year's average CPI of 13.4 is the level
behind every 1934 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1934: $100 is worth $88.74 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1934/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1934. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1934/