$100 in 1918 is worth $546 in 1980,
because prices increased 445.7% over that period, an average of
2.77% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$546
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
445.7%
Average inflation rate
2.77% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$546
Price difference ($100 base)
$446
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1918 → 1980
$546
$100 in 1980 → 1918
$18.33
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1980
Between 1918 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 445.7%, which works out to an average of
2.77% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1980: the 1918 dollar
lost 81.7% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1980 at the same ratio, 5.46: $1,000 becomes
$5,457, and $10,000 becomes $54,570.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1980
$1.00
$5.46
$5.00
$27.28
$10.00
$54.57
$20.00
$109
$50.00
$273
$100
$546
$500
$2,728
$1,000
$5,457
$5,000
$27,285
$10,000
$54,570
$100,000
$545,695
$1,000,000
$5,456,954
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1980
Between 1918 and 1980, food rose the most, up 419.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 233.0%, against 445.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.77%
$546
Food
2.69%
$520
Apparel
1.96%
$333
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 1980
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 1918–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$546
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $160 by
1948, on its way to $546 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $546; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1980: $100 is worth $546 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1980/