$100 in 1918 is worth $902 in 1991,
because prices increased 802.0% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$902
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
802.0%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$902
Price difference ($100 base)
$802
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1918 → 1991
$902
$100 in 1991 → 1918
$11.09
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1991
Between 1918 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 802.0%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1991: the 1918 dollar
lost 88.9% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 1991 at the same ratio, 9.02: $1,000 becomes
$9,020, and $10,000 becomes $90,199.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1991
$1.00
$9.02
$5.00
$45.10
$10.00
$90.20
$20.00
$180
$50.00
$451
$100
$902
$500
$4,510
$1,000
$9,020
$5,000
$45,099
$10,000
$90,199
$100,000
$901,987
$1,000,000
$9,019,868
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1991
Between 1918 and 1991, food rose the most, up 716.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 371.4%, against 802.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$902
Food
2.92%
$816
Apparel
2.15%
$471
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 1991
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 1918–1991 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
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$902
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $177 by
1953, on its way to $902 in 1991; 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: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $902; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1991: $100 is worth $902 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1991/