$100 in 1918 is worth $230 in 1968,
because prices increased 130.5% over that period, an average of
1.68% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$230
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
130.5%
Average inflation rate
1.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$230
Price difference ($100 base)
$130
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1918 → 1968
$230
$100 in 1968 → 1918
$43.39
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1968
Between 1918 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 130.5%, which works out to an average of
1.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1968: the 1918 dollar
lost 56.6% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1968 at the same ratio, 2.30: $1,000 becomes
$2,305, and $10,000 becomes $23,046.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1968
$1.00
$2.30
$5.00
$11.52
$10.00
$23.05
$20.00
$46.09
$50.00
$115
$100
$230
$500
$1,152
$1,000
$2,305
$5,000
$11,523
$10,000
$23,046
$100,000
$230,464
$1,000,000
$2,304,636
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1968
Between 1918 and 1968, food rose the most, up 111.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 96.7%, against 130.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.68%
$230
Food
1.51%
$211
Apparel
1.36%
$197
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 1968
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 1918–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$230
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $108 by
1942, on its way to $230 in 1968; 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: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $230; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1968: $100 is worth $230 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1968/