$100 in 1918 is worth $1,173 in 2001,
because prices increased 1072.8% over that period, an average of
3.01% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,173
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1072.8%
Average inflation rate
3.01% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,173
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,073
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1918 → 2001
$1,173
$100 in 2001 → 1918
$8.53
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2001
Between 1918 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1072.8%, which works out to an average of
3.01% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2001: the 1918 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2001 at the same ratio, 11.73: $1,000 becomes
$11,728, and $10,000 becomes $117,285.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2001
$1.00
$11.73
$5.00
$58.64
$10.00
$117
$20.00
$235
$50.00
$586
$100
$1,173
$500
$5,864
$1,000
$11,728
$5,000
$58,642
$10,000
$117,285
$100,000
$1,172,848
$1,000,000
$11,728,477
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2001
Between 1918 and 2001, food rose the most, up 936.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 366.3%, against 1072.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.01%
$1,173
Food
2.86%
$1,037
Apparel
1.87%
$466
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 2001
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 1918–2001 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,140
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$1,173
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $1,173 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,173; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2001: $100 is worth $1,173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2001/