$100 in 1918 is worth $783 in 1988,
because prices increased 683.4% over that period, an average of
2.98% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$783
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
683.4%
Average inflation rate
2.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$783
Price difference ($100 base)
$683
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1918 → 1988
$783
$100 in 1988 → 1918
$12.76
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1988
Between 1918 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 683.4%, which works out to an average of
2.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1988: the 1918 dollar
lost 87.2% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 1988 at the same ratio, 7.83: $1,000 becomes
$7,834, and $10,000 becomes $78,344.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1988
$1.00
$7.83
$5.00
$39.17
$10.00
$78.34
$20.00
$157
$50.00
$392
$100
$783
$500
$3,917
$1,000
$7,834
$5,000
$39,172
$10,000
$78,344
$100,000
$783,444
$1,000,000
$7,834,437
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1988
Between 1918 and 1988, food rose the most, up 607.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 322.7%, against 683.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.98%
$783
Food
2.84%
$708
Apparel
2.08%
$423
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 1988
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 1918–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$783
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $177 by
1953, on its way to $783 in 1988; 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: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $783; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1988: $100 is worth $783 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1988/