$100 in 1918 is worth $172 in 1951,
because prices increased 72.2% over that period, an average of
1.66% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.2%
Average inflation rate
1.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.19
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1918 → 1951
$172
$100 in 1951 → 1918
$58.08
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1951
Between 1918 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.2%, which works out to an average of
1.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1951: the 1918 dollar
lost 41.9% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,722, and $10,000 becomes $17,219.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.72
$5.00
$8.61
$10.00
$17.22
$20.00
$34.44
$50.00
$86.09
$100
$172
$500
$861
$1,000
$1,722
$5,000
$8,609
$10,000
$17,219
$100,000
$172,185
$1,000,000
$1,721,854
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1951
Between 1918 and 1951, food rose the most, up 68.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.8%, against 72.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.66%
$172
Food
1.60%
$169
Apparel
1.45%
$161
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 1951
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 1918–1951 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$160
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$172
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $88.74 by
1934, on its way to $172 in 1951; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1951
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $172; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1951: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1951/