$100 in 1918 is worth $1,039 in 1996,
because prices increased 939.1% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,039
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
939.1%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,039
Price difference ($100 base)
$939
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1918 → 1996
$1,039
$100 in 1996 → 1918
$9.62
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1996
Between 1918 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 939.1%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1996: the 1918 dollar
lost 90.4% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 1996 at the same ratio, 10.39: $1,000 becomes
$10,391, and $10,000 becomes $103,907.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1996
$1.00
$10.39
$5.00
$51.95
$10.00
$104
$20.00
$208
$50.00
$520
$100
$1,039
$500
$5,195
$1,000
$10,391
$5,000
$51,954
$10,000
$103,907
$100,000
$1,039,073
$1,000,000
$10,390,728
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1996
Between 1918 and 1996, food rose the most, up 818.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 382.4%, against 939.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$1,039
Food
2.88%
$918
Apparel
2.04%
$482
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 1996
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 1918–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$1,039
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $1,039 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,039; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1996: $100 is worth $1,039 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1996/