$100 in 1918 is worth $957 in 1993,
because prices increased 857.0% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$957
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
857.0%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$957
Price difference ($100 base)
$857
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1918 → 1993
$957
$100 in 1993 → 1918
$10.45
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1993
Between 1918 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 857.0%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1993: the 1918 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 1993 at the same ratio, 9.57: $1,000 becomes
$9,570, and $10,000 becomes $95,695.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1993
$1.00
$9.57
$5.00
$47.85
$10.00
$95.70
$20.00
$191
$50.00
$478
$100
$957
$500
$4,785
$1,000
$9,570
$5,000
$47,848
$10,000
$95,695
$100,000
$956,954
$1,000,000
$9,569,536
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1993
Between 1918 and 1993, food rose the most, up 743.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 389.7%, against 857.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$957
Food
2.88%
$844
Apparel
2.14%
$490
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 1993
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 1918–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$957
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $177 by
1953, on its way to $957 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $957; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1993: $100 is worth $957 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1993/