$100 in 1918 is worth $481 in 1979,
because prices increased 380.8% over that period, an average of
2.61% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$481
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
380.8%
Average inflation rate
2.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$481
Price difference ($100 base)
$381
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1918 → 1979
$481
$100 in 1979 → 1918
$20.80
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1979
Between 1918 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 380.8%, which works out to an average of
2.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1979: the 1918 dollar
lost 79.2% of its purchasing power over
these 61 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 1979 at the same ratio, 4.81: $1,000 becomes
$4,808, and $10,000 becomes $48,079.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1979
$1.00
$4.81
$5.00
$24.04
$10.00
$48.08
$20.00
$96.16
$50.00
$240
$100
$481
$500
$2,404
$1,000
$4,808
$5,000
$24,040
$10,000
$48,079
$100,000
$480,795
$1,000,000
$4,807,947
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1979
Between 1918 and 1979, food rose the most, up 378.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 211.0%, against 380.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.61%
$481
Food
2.60%
$478
Apparel
1.88%
$311
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 1979
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 1918–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$481
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $160 by
1948, on its way to $481 in 1979; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $481; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1979: $100 is worth $481 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1979/