$100 in 1918 is worth $177 in 1953,
because prices increased 76.8% over that period, an average of
1.64% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$177
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
76.8%
Average inflation rate
1.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$177
Price difference ($100 base)
$76.82
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1918 → 1953
$177
$100 in 1953 → 1918
$56.55
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1953
Between 1918 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 76.8%, which works out to an average of
1.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1953: the 1918 dollar
lost 43.4% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.77: $1,000 becomes
$1,768, and $10,000 becomes $17,682.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.77
$5.00
$8.84
$10.00
$17.68
$20.00
$35.36
$50.00
$88.41
$100
$177
$500
$884
$1,000
$1,768
$5,000
$8,841
$10,000
$17,682
$100,000
$176,821
$1,000,000
$1,768,212
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1953
Between 1918 and 1953, food rose the most, up 69.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 57.9%, against 76.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.64%
$177
Food
1.52%
$169
Apparel
1.31%
$158
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 1953
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 1918–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$177
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $92.05 by
1936, on its way to $177 in 1953; 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: 1953
In 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $177; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $177 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1953/