$100 in 1918 is worth $108 in 1942,
because prices increased 7.9% over that period, an average of
0.32% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$108
in 1942
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
7.9%
Average inflation rate
0.32% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$108
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.95
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1942
16.3
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
$100 in 1918 → 1942
$108
$100 in 1942 → 1918
$92.64
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1942
Between 1918 and 1942, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 16.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 7.9%, which works out to an average of
0.32% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1942: the 1918 dollar
lost 7.4% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1942 at the same ratio, 1.08: $1,000 becomes
$1,079, and $10,000 becomes $10,795.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1942
$1.00
$1.08
$5.00
$5.40
$10.00
$10.79
$20.00
$21.59
$50.00
$53.97
$100
$108
$500
$540
$1,000
$1,079
$5,000
$5,397
$10,000
$10,795
$100,000
$107,947
$1,000,000
$1,079,470
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1942
Every category fell between 1918 and 1942: food the most, down 7.8%, and apparel the least, down 2.2%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1942, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.32%
$108
Apparel
-0.09%
$97.80
Food
-0.34%
$92.22
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 1942
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 1918–1942 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
1940–1942
7.90%
16.4%
$108
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $111 by
1930, on its way to $108 in 1942; 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 1942, prices rose 10.9% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $108; the year's average CPI of 16.3 is the level
behind every 1942 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1942: $100 is worth $108 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1942/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1942. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1942/