$100 in 1918 is worth $117 in 1944,
because prices increased 16.6% over that period, an average of
0.59% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$117
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
16.6%
Average inflation rate
0.59% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$117
Price difference ($100 base)
$16.56
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1918 → 1944
$117
$100 in 1944 → 1918
$85.80
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1944
Between 1918 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 16.6%, which works out to an average of
0.59% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1944: the 1918 dollar
lost 14.2% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.17: $1,000 becomes
$1,166, and $10,000 becomes $11,656.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.17
$5.00
$5.83
$10.00
$11.66
$20.00
$23.31
$50.00
$58.28
$100
$117
$500
$583
$1,000
$1,166
$5,000
$5,828
$10,000
$11,656
$100,000
$116,556
$1,000,000
$1,165,563
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1944
Between 1918 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 9.2%, while food rose the least, up 1.2%, against 16.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.59%
$117
Apparel
0.34%
$109
Food
0.05%
$101
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 1944
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 1918–1944 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
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$117
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $101 by
1931, on its way to $117 in 1944; 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 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $117; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1944: $100 is worth $117 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1944/