$100 in 1918 is worth $198 in 1961,
because prices increased 98.0% over that period, an average of
1.60% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$198
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
98.0%
Average inflation rate
1.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$198
Price difference ($100 base)
$98.01
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1918 → 1961
$198
$100 in 1961 → 1918
$50.50
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1961
Between 1918 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 98.0%, which works out to an average of
1.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1961: the 1918 dollar
lost 49.5% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1961 at the same ratio, 1.98: $1,000 becomes
$1,980, and $10,000 becomes $19,801.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.98
$5.00
$9.90
$10.00
$19.80
$20.00
$39.60
$50.00
$99.01
$100
$198
$500
$990
$1,000
$1,980
$5,000
$9,901
$10,000
$19,801
$100,000
$198,013
$1,000,000
$1,980,132
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1961
Between 1918 and 1961, food rose the most, up 82.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 68.9%, against 98.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.60%
$198
Food
1.40%
$182
Apparel
1.23%
$169
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 1961
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 1918–1961 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$196
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$198
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $92.72 by
1940, on its way to $198 in 1961; 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: 1961
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $198; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1961: $100 is worth $198 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1961/