$100 in 1918 is worth $205 in 1964,
because prices increased 105.3% over that period, an average of
1.58% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$205
in 1964
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
105.3%
Average inflation rate
1.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$205
Price difference ($100 base)
$105
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1964
31
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1964
1.31%
$100 in 1918 → 1964
$205
$100 in 1964 → 1918
$48.71
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1964
Between 1918 and 1964, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 31.
Cumulatively, prices increased 105.3%, which works out to an average of
1.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1964: the 1918 dollar
lost 51.3% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1964 at the same ratio, 2.05: $1,000 becomes
$2,053, and $10,000 becomes $20,530.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1964
$1.00
$2.05
$5.00
$10.26
$10.00
$20.53
$20.00
$41.06
$50.00
$103
$100
$205
$500
$1,026
$1,000
$2,053
$5,000
$10,265
$10,000
$20,530
$100,000
$205,298
$1,000,000
$2,052,980
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1964
Between 1918 and 1964, food rose the most, up 88.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 73.3%, against 105.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1964, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.58%
$205
Food
1.39%
$189
Apparel
1.20%
$173
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 1964
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 1918–1964 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
1960–1964
1.16%
4.7%
$205
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 $205 in 1964; 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: 1964
In 1964, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $205; the year's average CPI of 31 is the level
behind every 1964 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1964, matching 1963’s pace
even as a large federal tax cut took effect that year. The Revenue Act of
1964, signed February 26, lowered individual and corporate tax rates
significantly, the cut Kennedy had proposed the year before his death and
Johnson pushed through Congress as a Keynesian bet that lower taxes would
spur enough growth without stoking prices. Congress reshaped civil rights
law that July 2, when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination
based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin in employment
and public accommodations, the most sweeping civil rights legislation
since Reconstruction. Vietnam policy shifted that August, when Congress
passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution after reported attacks on U.S. Navy
destroyers, authorizing Johnson to use military force in Vietnam without
a formal declaration of war. American pop culture changed that February
too: the Beatles landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport and played the Ed
Sullivan Show two days later for an estimated 73 million viewers,
igniting the “British Invasion.” Consumer prices finished 1964 213.1%
above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at 5
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1964: $100 is worth $205 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1964/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1964. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1964/