$100 in 1918 is worth $95.36 in 1937,
because prices declined 4.6% over that period, an average of
0.25% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$95.36
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-4.6%
Average inflation rate
-0.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$95.36
Price difference ($100 base)
-$4.64
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1918 → 1937
$95.36
$100 in 1937 → 1918
$105
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1937
Between 1918 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 4.6%, which works out to an average of
-0.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$1.05 buys in 1937: the 1918 dollar
gained 4.9% in purchasing power over
these 19 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 1937 at the same ratio, 0.95: $1,000 becomes
$954, and $10,000 becomes $9,536.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1937
$1.00
$0.95
$5.00
$4.77
$10.00
$9.54
$20.00
$19.07
$50.00
$47.68
$100
$95.36
$500
$477
$1,000
$954
$5,000
$4,768
$10,000
$9,536
$100,000
$95,364
$1,000,000
$953,642
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1937
Every category fell between 1918 and 1937: food the most, down 21.6%, and apparel the least, down 19.4%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.25%
$95.36
Apparel
-1.13%
$80.59
Food
-1.27%
$78.44
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 1937
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1937 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
1930–1937
-2.09%
-13.8%
$95.36
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $115 by
1927, on its way to $95.36 in 1937; 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 1937, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $95.36; the year's average CPI of 14.4 is the level
behind every 1937 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1937: $100 is worth $95.36 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1937/