$100 in 1918 is worth $92.05 in 1936,
because prices declined 7.9% over that period, an average of
0.46% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$92.05
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-7.9%
Average inflation rate
-0.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$92.05
Price difference ($100 base)
-$7.95
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1918 → 1936
$92.05
$100 in 1936 → 1918
$109
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1936
Between 1918 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 7.9%, which works out to an average of
-0.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$1.09 buys in 1936: the 1918 dollar
gained 8.6% in purchasing power over
these 18 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 1936 at the same ratio, 0.92: $1,000 becomes
$921, and $10,000 becomes $9,205.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1936
$1.00
$0.92
$5.00
$4.60
$10.00
$9.21
$20.00
$18.41
$50.00
$46.03
$100
$92.05
$500
$460
$1,000
$921
$5,000
$4,603
$10,000
$9,205
$100,000
$92,053
$1,000,000
$920,530
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1936
Every category fell between 1918 and 1936: food the most, down 24.6%, and apparel the least, down 23.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.46%
$92.05
Apparel
-1.45%
$76.92
Food
-1.55%
$75.45
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 1936
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1936 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
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$92.05
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $115 by
1927, on its way to $92.05 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $92.05; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1936: $100 is worth $92.05 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1936/