$100 in 1918 is worth $1,063 in 1997,
because prices increased 962.9% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,063
in 1997
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
962.9%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,063
Price difference ($100 base)
$963
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1997
160.5
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1997
2.29%
$100 in 1918 → 1997
$1,063
$100 in 1997 → 1918
$9.41
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1997
Between 1918 and 1997, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 160.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 962.9%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1997: the 1918 dollar
lost 90.6% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 1997 at the same ratio, 10.63: $1,000 becomes
$10,629, and $10,000 becomes $106,291.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1997
$1.00
$10.63
$5.00
$53.15
$10.00
$106
$20.00
$213
$50.00
$531
$100
$1,063
$500
$5,315
$1,000
$10,629
$5,000
$53,146
$10,000
$106,291
$100,000
$1,062,914
$1,000,000
$10,629,139
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1997
Between 1918 and 1997, food rose the most, up 841.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 386.8%, against 962.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1997, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$1,063
Food
2.88%
$942
Apparel
2.02%
$487
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 1997
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 1918–1997 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
1990–1997
2.98%
22.8%
$1,063
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $1,063 in 1997; 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: 1997
In 1997, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,063; the year's average CPI of 160.5 is the level
behind every 1997 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $37,000 in 1997, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $146,000. Inflation ran at 2.3% for the year, its lowest reading since the
mid-1980s, as a strong dollar and falling import prices helped keep costs in check at home even
as trouble built abroad. In July, Thailand devalued the baht, and the currency collapse that
followed spread within months to Indonesia, South Korea, and other Southeast Asian economies,
forcing IMF bailouts and years of recession across the region, though the crisis had little
immediate effect on U.S. prices. At home, Washington had a calmer year: in August, President
Clinton and Congress agreed on the Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayer Relief Act, which cut
capital gains tax rates, created the Roth IRA, and set the federal budget on a path to its first
surplus in nearly three decades. In September, the federal minimum wage completed a two-step
rise to $5.15 an hour, where it would stay for a decade. Low inflation, a firming budget picture,
and a crisis unfolding an ocean away made 1997 a year the U.S. economy looked stronger than much
of the rest of the world’s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1997: $100 is worth $1,063 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1997/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1997. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1997/