$100 in 1918 is worth $277 in 1972,
because prices increased 176.8% over that period, an average of
1.90% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$277
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
176.8%
Average inflation rate
1.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$277
Price difference ($100 base)
$177
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1918 → 1972
$277
$100 in 1972 → 1918
$36.12
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1972
Between 1918 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 176.8%, which works out to an average of
1.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.36 buys in 1972: the 1918 dollar
lost 63.9% of its purchasing power over
these 54 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 1972 at the same ratio, 2.77: $1,000 becomes
$2,768, and $10,000 becomes $27,682.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.77
$5.00
$13.84
$10.00
$27.68
$20.00
$55.36
$50.00
$138
$100
$277
$500
$1,384
$1,000
$2,768
$5,000
$13,841
$10,000
$27,682
$100,000
$276,821
$1,000,000
$2,768,212
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1972
Between 1918 and 1972, food rose the most, up 152.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 128.2%, against 176.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.90%
$277
Food
1.73%
$252
Apparel
1.54%
$228
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 1972
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 1918–1972 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$257
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$277
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $117 by
1944, on its way to $277 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $277; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1972: $100 is worth $277 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1972/