$100 in 1918 is worth $221 in 1967,
because prices increased 121.2% over that period, an average of
1.63% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$221
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
121.2%
Average inflation rate
1.63% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$221
Price difference ($100 base)
$121
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1918 → 1967
$221
$100 in 1967 → 1918
$45.21
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1967
Between 1918 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 121.2%, which works out to an average of
1.63% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1967: the 1918 dollar
lost 54.8% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1967 at the same ratio, 2.21: $1,000 becomes
$2,212, and $10,000 becomes $22,119.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1967
$1.00
$2.21
$5.00
$11.06
$10.00
$22.12
$20.00
$44.24
$50.00
$111
$100
$221
$500
$1,106
$1,000
$2,212
$5,000
$11,060
$10,000
$22,119
$100,000
$221,192
$1,000,000
$2,211,921
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1967
Between 1918 and 1967, food rose the most, up 104.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 86.8%, against 121.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.63%
$221
Food
1.47%
$204
Apparel
1.28%
$187
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 1967
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 1918–1967 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
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$221
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $108 by
1942, on its way to $221 in 1967; 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: 1967
In 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $221; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1967: $100 is worth $221 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1967/