$100 in 1918 is worth $866 in 1990,
because prices increased 765.6% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$866
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
765.6%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$866
Price difference ($100 base)
$766
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1918 → 1990
$866
$100 in 1990 → 1918
$11.55
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1990
Between 1918 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 765.6%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1990: the 1918 dollar
lost 88.4% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 1990 at the same ratio, 8.66: $1,000 becomes
$8,656, and $10,000 becomes $86,556.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1990
$1.00
$8.66
$5.00
$43.28
$10.00
$86.56
$20.00
$173
$50.00
$433
$100
$866
$500
$4,328
$1,000
$8,656
$5,000
$43,278
$10,000
$86,556
$100,000
$865,563
$1,000,000
$8,655,629
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1990
Between 1918 and 1990, food rose the most, up 692.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 354.6%, against 765.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$866
Food
2.92%
$793
Apparel
2.13%
$455
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 1990
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 1918–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$866
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $177 by
1953, on its way to $866 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $866; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1990: $100 is worth $866 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1990/