$100 in 1918 is worth $119 in 1945,
because prices increased 19.2% over that period, an average of
0.65% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$119
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
19.2%
Average inflation rate
0.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$119
Price difference ($100 base)
$19.21
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1918 → 1945
$119
$100 in 1945 → 1918
$83.89
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1945
Between 1918 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 19.2%, which works out to an average of
0.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.84 buys in 1945: the 1918 dollar
lost 16.1% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.19: $1,000 becomes
$1,192, and $10,000 becomes $11,921.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.19
$5.00
$5.96
$10.00
$11.92
$20.00
$23.84
$50.00
$59.60
$100
$119
$500
$596
$1,000
$1,192
$5,000
$5,960
$10,000
$11,921
$100,000
$119,205
$1,000,000
$1,192,053
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1945
Between 1918 and 1945, apparel rose the most, up 15.0%, while food rose the least, up 3.6%, against 19.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.65%
$119
Apparel
0.52%
$115
Food
0.13%
$104
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 1945
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 1918–1945 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
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$119
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $101 by
1931, on its way to $119 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $119; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1945: $100 is worth $119 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1945/