$100 in 1918 is worth $97.35 in 1941,
because prices declined 2.6% over that period, an average of
0.12% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$97.35
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-2.6%
Average inflation rate
-0.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$97.35
Price difference ($100 base)
-$2.65
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1918 → 1941
$97.35
$100 in 1941 → 1918
$103
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1941
Between 1918 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 2.6%, which works out to an average of
-0.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$1.03 buys in 1941: the 1918 dollar
gained 2.7% in purchasing power over
these 23 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 1941 at the same ratio, 0.97: $1,000 becomes
$974, and $10,000 becomes $9,735.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1941
$1.00
$0.97
$5.00
$4.87
$10.00
$9.74
$20.00
$19.47
$50.00
$48.68
$100
$97.35
$500
$487
$1,000
$974
$5,000
$4,868
$10,000
$9,735
$100,000
$97,351
$1,000,000
$973,510
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1941
Every category fell between 1918 and 1941: food the most, down 21.6%, and apparel the least, down 16.5%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.12%
$97.35
Apparel
-0.78%
$83.52
Food
-1.05%
$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 1941
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.09% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1918–1941 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
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$92.72
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$97.35
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $113 by
1929, on its way to $97.35 in 1941; 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 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $97.35; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1941: $100 is worth $97.35 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1941/