$100 in 1918 is worth $203 in 1963,
because prices increased 102.6% over that period, an average of
1.58% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$203
in 1963
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.6%
Average inflation rate
1.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$203
Price difference ($100 base)
$103
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1963
30.6
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1963
1.32%
$100 in 1918 → 1963
$203
$100 in 1963 → 1918
$49.35
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1963
Between 1918 and 1963, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 30.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.6%, which works out to an average of
1.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1963: the 1918 dollar
lost 50.7% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1963 at the same ratio, 2.03: $1,000 becomes
$2,026, and $10,000 becomes $20,265.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1963
$1.00
$2.03
$5.00
$10.13
$10.00
$20.26
$20.00
$40.53
$50.00
$101
$100
$203
$500
$1,013
$1,000
$2,026
$5,000
$10,132
$10,000
$20,265
$100,000
$202,649
$1,000,000
$2,026,490
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1963
Between 1918 and 1963, food rose the most, up 86.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 71.8%, against 102.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1963, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.58%
$203
Food
1.39%
$186
Apparel
1.21%
$172
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 1963
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 1918–1963 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
1960–1963
1.11%
3.4%
$203
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 $203 in 1963; 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: 1963
In 1963, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $203; the year's average CPI of 30.6 is the level
behind every 1963 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1963, up slightly from 1962’s
1.0% as the expansion entered its third year with inflation still low,
conditions that gave Kennedy room to push the large tax cut he had
proposed to Congress. The cost of a first-class stamp rose that January
7, to 5 cents from 4 cents, the first postal rate change since 1958. That
August 28, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech
from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a quarter million people
gathered for the March on Washington, building pressure on Congress to
pass the civil rights bill Kennedy had proposed that June. The year ended
in tragedy: Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade through
Dallas on November 22, and Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force
One that same afternoon. Johnson would spend the following year pushing
Kennedy’s stalled tax and civil rights agenda through Congress. The
minimum wage rose again that September, to $1.25 an hour, the second step
of the phased increase set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1963 209.1% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1963: $100 is worth $203 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1963/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1963. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1963/