$100 in 1918 is worth $243 in 1969,
because prices increased 143.0% over that period, an average of
1.76% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$243
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
143.0%
Average inflation rate
1.76% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$243
Price difference ($100 base)
$143
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1918 → 1969
$243
$100 in 1969 → 1918
$41.14
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1969
Between 1918 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 143.0%, which works out to an average of
1.76% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1969: the 1918 dollar
lost 58.9% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.43: $1,000 becomes
$2,430, and $10,000 becomes $24,305.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.43
$5.00
$12.15
$10.00
$24.30
$20.00
$48.61
$50.00
$122
$100
$243
$500
$1,215
$1,000
$2,430
$5,000
$12,152
$10,000
$24,305
$100,000
$243,046
$1,000,000
$2,430,464
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1969
Between 1918 and 1969, food rose the most, up 122.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 108.1%, against 143.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.76%
$243
Food
1.58%
$222
Apparel
1.45%
$208
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 1969
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 1918–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$243
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $117 by
1944, on its way to $243 in 1969; 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: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $243; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1969: $100 is worth $243 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1969/