$100 in 1918 is worth $180 in 1956,
because prices increased 80.1% over that period, an average of
1.56% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
80.1%
Average inflation rate
1.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$80.13
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1918 → 1956
$180
$100 in 1956 → 1918
$55.51
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1956
Between 1918 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 80.1%, which works out to an average of
1.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1956: the 1918 dollar
lost 44.5% of its purchasing power over
these 38 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,801, and $10,000 becomes $18,013.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.80
$5.00
$9.01
$10.00
$18.01
$20.00
$36.03
$50.00
$90.07
$100
$180
$500
$901
$1,000
$1,801
$5,000
$9,007
$10,000
$18,013
$100,000
$180,132
$1,000,000
$1,801,325
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1956
Between 1918 and 1956, food rose the most, up 67.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.1%, against 80.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.56%
$180
Food
1.37%
$168
Apparel
1.25%
$160
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 1956
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 1918–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$180
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 $180 in 1956; 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: 1956
In 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $180; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1956: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1956/