$100 in 1918 is worth $160 in 1948,
because prices increased 59.6% over that period, an average of
1.57% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$160
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
59.6%
Average inflation rate
1.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$160
Price difference ($100 base)
$59.60
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1918 → 1948
$160
$100 in 1948 → 1918
$62.66
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1948
Between 1918 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 59.6%, which works out to an average of
1.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1948: the 1918 dollar
lost 37.3% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.60: $1,000 becomes
$1,596, and $10,000 becomes $15,960.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.60
$5.00
$7.98
$10.00
$15.96
$20.00
$31.92
$50.00
$79.80
$100
$160
$500
$798
$1,000
$1,596
$5,000
$7,980
$10,000
$15,960
$100,000
$159,603
$1,000,000
$1,596,026
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1948
Between 1918 and 1948, food rose the most, up 56.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 55.7%, against 59.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.57%
$160
Food
1.50%
$156
Apparel
1.49%
$156
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 1948
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 1918–1948 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
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$160
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $86.09 by
1933, on its way to $160 in 1948; 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 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $160; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1948: $100 is worth $160 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1948/