$100 in 1918 is worth $191 in 1958,
because prices increased 91.4% over that period, an average of
1.64% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$191
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
91.4%
Average inflation rate
1.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$191
Price difference ($100 base)
$91.39
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1918 → 1958
$191
$100 in 1958 → 1918
$52.25
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1958
Between 1918 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 91.4%, which works out to an average of
1.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.52 buys in 1958: the 1918 dollar
lost 47.8% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.91: $1,000 becomes
$1,914, and $10,000 becomes $19,139.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.91
$5.00
$9.57
$10.00
$19.14
$20.00
$38.28
$50.00
$95.70
$100
$191
$500
$957
$1,000
$1,914
$5,000
$9,570
$10,000
$19,139
$100,000
$191,391
$1,000,000
$1,913,907
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1958
Between 1918 and 1958, food rose the most, up 80.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.4%, against 91.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.64%
$191
Food
1.49%
$181
Apparel
1.23%
$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 1958
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 1918–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$191
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 $191 in 1958; 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: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $191; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1958: $100 is worth $191 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1958/