$100 in 1918 is worth $115 in 1943,
because prices increased 14.6% over that period, an average of
0.55% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$115
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
14.6%
Average inflation rate
0.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$115
Price difference ($100 base)
$14.57
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1918 → 1943
$115
$100 in 1943 → 1918
$87.28
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1943
Between 1918 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 14.6%, which works out to an average of
0.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.87 buys in 1943: the 1918 dollar
lost 12.7% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1943 at the same ratio, 1.15: $1,000 becomes
$1,146, and $10,000 becomes $11,457.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.15
$5.00
$5.73
$10.00
$11.46
$20.00
$22.91
$50.00
$57.28
$100
$115
$500
$573
$1,000
$1,146
$5,000
$5,728
$10,000
$11,457
$100,000
$114,570
$1,000,000
$1,145,695
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1943
Between 1918 and 1943, food rose the most, up 2.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.8%, against 14.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.55%
$115
Food
0.09%
$102
Apparel
0.07%
$102
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 1943
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 1918–1943 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
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$115
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $111 by
1930, on its way to $115 in 1943; 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 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $115; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1943: $100 is worth $115 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1943/