$100 in 1918 is worth $1,103 in 1999,
because prices increased 1003.3% over that period, an average of
3.01% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,103
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1003.3%
Average inflation rate
3.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,103
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,003
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1918 → 1999
$1,103
$100 in 1999 → 1918
$9.06
What happened to prices between 1918 and 1999
Between 1918 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1003.3%, which works out to an average of
3.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.09 buys in 1999: the 1918 dollar
lost 90.9% of its purchasing power over
these 81 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 1999 at the same ratio, 11.03: $1,000 becomes
$11,033, and $10,000 becomes $110,331.
Amount in 1918
Value in 1999
$1.00
$11.03
$5.00
$55.17
$10.00
$110
$20.00
$221
$50.00
$552
$100
$1,103
$500
$5,517
$1,000
$11,033
$5,000
$55,166
$10,000
$110,331
$100,000
$1,103,311
$1,000,000
$11,033,113
Inflation by spending category, 1918–1999
Between 1918 and 1999, food rose the most, up 882.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 381.0%, against 1003.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.01%
$1,103
Food
2.86%
$983
Apparel
1.96%
$481
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 1999
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 1918–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$1,103
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $1,103 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,103; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 1999: $100 is worth $1,103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-1999/