$100 in 1918 is worth $660 in 1983,
because prices increased 559.6% over that period, an average of
2.94% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$660
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
559.6%
Average inflation rate
2.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$660
Price difference ($100 base)
$560
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1918 → 1983
$660
$100 in 1983 → 1918
$15.16
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1983
Between 1918 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 559.6%, which works out to an average of
2.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1983: the 1918 dollar
lost 84.8% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1983 at the same ratio, 6.60: $1,000 becomes
$6,596, and $10,000 becomes $65,960.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1983
$1.00
$6.60
$5.00
$32.98
$10.00
$65.96
$20.00
$132
$50.00
$330
$100
$660
$500
$3,298
$1,000
$6,596
$5,000
$32,980
$10,000
$65,960
$100,000
$659,603
$1,000,000
$6,596,026
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1983
Between 1918 and 1983, food rose the most, up 495.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 267.0%, against 559.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.94%
$660
Food
2.78%
$595
Apparel
2.02%
$367
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 1983
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 1918–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$660
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $160 by
1948, on its way to $660 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $660; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1983: $100 is worth $660 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1983/