$100 in 1918 is worth $688 in 1984,
because prices increased 588.1% over that period, an average of
2.97% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$688
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
588.1%
Average inflation rate
2.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$688
Price difference ($100 base)
$588
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1918 → 1984
$688
$100 in 1984 → 1918
$14.53
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1984
Between 1918 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 588.1%, which works out to an average of
2.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1984: the 1918 dollar
lost 85.5% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 1984 at the same ratio, 6.88: $1,000 becomes
$6,881, and $10,000 becomes $68,808.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1984
$1.00
$6.88
$5.00
$34.40
$10.00
$68.81
$20.00
$138
$50.00
$344
$100
$688
$500
$3,440
$1,000
$6,881
$5,000
$34,404
$10,000
$68,808
$100,000
$688,079
$1,000,000
$6,880,795
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1984
Between 1918 and 1984, food rose the most, up 518.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 274.0%, against 588.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.97%
$688
Food
2.80%
$618
Apparel
2.02%
$374
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 1984
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 1918–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$688
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $177 by
1953, on its way to $688 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $688; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1984: $100 is worth $688 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1984/