$100 in 1918 is worth $209 in 1965,
because prices increased 108.6% over that period, an average of
1.58% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$209
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
108.6%
Average inflation rate
1.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$209
Price difference ($100 base)
$109
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1918 → 1965
$209
$100 in 1965 → 1918
$47.94
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1965
Between 1918 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 108.6%, which works out to an average of
1.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1965: the 1918 dollar
lost 52.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1965 at the same ratio, 2.09: $1,000 becomes
$2,086, and $10,000 becomes $20,861.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1965
$1.00
$2.09
$5.00
$10.43
$10.00
$20.86
$20.00
$41.72
$50.00
$104
$100
$209
$500
$1,043
$1,000
$2,086
$5,000
$10,430
$10,000
$20,861
$100,000
$208,609
$1,000,000
$2,086,093
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1965
Between 1918 and 1965, food rose the most, up 92.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.1%, against 108.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.58%
$209
Food
1.41%
$193
Apparel
1.20%
$175
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 1965
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 1918–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$209
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $108 by
1942, on its way to $209 in 1965; 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: 1965
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $209; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% 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 1965: $100 is worth $209 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1965/