$100 in 1918 is worth $1,009 in 1995,
because prices increased 909.3% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,009
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
909.3%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,009
Price difference ($100 base)
$909
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1918 → 1995
$1,009
$100 in 1995 → 1918
$9.91
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1995
Between 1918 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 909.3%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1995: the 1918 dollar
lost 90.1% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 1995 at the same ratio, 10.09: $1,000 becomes
$10,093, and $10,000 becomes $100,927.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1995
$1.00
$10.09
$5.00
$50.46
$10.00
$101
$20.00
$202
$50.00
$505
$100
$1,009
$500
$5,046
$1,000
$10,093
$5,000
$50,464
$10,000
$100,927
$100,000
$1,009,272
$1,000,000
$10,092,715
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1995
Between 1918 and 1995, food rose the most, up 788.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 383.5%, against 909.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$1,009
Food
2.88%
$889
Apparel
2.07%
$484
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 1995
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 1918–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$1,009
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $1,009 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,009; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1995: $100 is worth $1,009 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1995/