$100 in 1918 is worth $186 in 1957,
because prices increased 86.1% over that period, an average of
1.61% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$186
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
86.1%
Average inflation rate
1.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$186
Price difference ($100 base)
$86.09
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1918 → 1957
$186
$100 in 1957 → 1918
$53.74
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1957
Between 1918 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 86.1%, which works out to an average of
1.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1957: the 1918 dollar
lost 46.3% of its purchasing power over
these 39 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.86: $1,000 becomes
$1,861, and $10,000 becomes $18,609.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.86
$5.00
$9.30
$10.00
$18.61
$20.00
$37.22
$50.00
$93.05
$100
$186
$500
$930
$1,000
$1,861
$5,000
$9,305
$10,000
$18,609
$100,000
$186,093
$1,000,000
$1,860,927
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1957
Between 1918 and 1957, food rose the most, up 73.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.0%, against 86.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.61%
$186
Food
1.42%
$173
Apparel
1.26%
$163
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 1957
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 1918–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$186
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $93.38 by
1938, on its way to $186 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $186; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1957: $100 is worth $186 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1957/