$100 in 1918 is worth $294 in 1973,
because prices increased 194.0% over that period, an average of
1.98% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$294
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
194.0%
Average inflation rate
1.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$294
Price difference ($100 base)
$194
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1918 → 1973
$294
$100 in 1973 → 1918
$34.01
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1973
Between 1918 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 194.0%, which works out to an average of
1.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.34 buys in 1973: the 1918 dollar
lost 66.0% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.94: $1,000 becomes
$2,940, and $10,000 becomes $29,404.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.94
$5.00
$14.70
$10.00
$29.40
$20.00
$58.81
$50.00
$147
$100
$294
$500
$1,470
$1,000
$2,940
$5,000
$14,702
$10,000
$29,404
$100,000
$294,040
$1,000,000
$2,940,397
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1973
Between 1918 and 1973, food rose the most, up 188.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 136.6%, against 194.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.98%
$294
Food
1.95%
$289
Apparel
1.58%
$237
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 1973
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 1918–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$294
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $129 by
1946, on its way to $294 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $294; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1973: $100 is worth $294 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1973/