$100 in 1918 is worth $178 in 1954,
because prices increased 78.1% over that period, an average of
1.62% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$178
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
78.1%
Average inflation rate
1.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$178
Price difference ($100 base)
$78.15
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1918 → 1954
$178
$100 in 1954 → 1918
$56.13
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1954
Between 1918 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 78.1%, which works out to an average of
1.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1954: the 1918 dollar
lost 43.9% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.78: $1,000 becomes
$1,781, and $10,000 becomes $17,815.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.78
$5.00
$8.91
$10.00
$17.81
$20.00
$35.63
$50.00
$89.07
$100
$178
$500
$891
$1,000
$1,781
$5,000
$8,907
$10,000
$17,815
$100,000
$178,146
$1,000,000
$1,781,457
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1954
Between 1918 and 1954, food rose the most, up 68.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 57.9%, against 78.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.62%
$178
Food
1.47%
$169
Apparel
1.28%
$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 1954
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 1918–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$178
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 $178 in 1954; 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: 1954
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $178; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1954: $100 is worth $178 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1954/