$100 in 1918 is worth $981 in 1994,
because prices increased 881.5% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$981
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
881.5%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$981
Price difference ($100 base)
$881
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1918 → 1994
$981
$100 in 1994 → 1918
$10.19
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1994
Between 1918 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 881.5%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1994: the 1918 dollar
lost 89.8% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 1994 at the same ratio, 9.81: $1,000 becomes
$9,815, and $10,000 becomes $98,146.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1994
$1.00
$9.81
$5.00
$49.07
$10.00
$98.15
$20.00
$196
$50.00
$491
$100
$981
$500
$4,907
$1,000
$9,815
$5,000
$49,073
$10,000
$98,146
$100,000
$981,457
$1,000,000
$9,814,570
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1994
Between 1918 and 1994, food rose the most, up 764.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 388.6%, against 881.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$981
Food
2.88%
$864
Apparel
2.11%
$489
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 1994
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 1918–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$981
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $981 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $981; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1994: $100 is worth $981 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1994/