$100 in 1918 is worth $1,191 in 2002,
because prices increased 1091.4% over that period, an average of
2.99% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,191
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1091.4%
Average inflation rate
2.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,191
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,091
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1918 → 2002
$1,191
$100 in 2002 → 1918
$8.39
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2002
Between 1918 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1091.4%, which works out to an average of
2.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2002: the 1918 dollar
lost 91.6% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2002 at the same ratio, 11.91: $1,000 becomes
$11,914, and $10,000 becomes $119,139.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2002
$1.00
$11.91
$5.00
$59.57
$10.00
$119
$20.00
$238
$50.00
$596
$100
$1,191
$500
$5,957
$1,000
$11,914
$5,000
$59,570
$10,000
$119,139
$100,000
$1,191,391
$1,000,000
$11,913,907
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2002
Between 1918 and 2002, food rose the most, up 955.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 354.2%, against 1091.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.99%
$1,191
Food
2.84%
$1,055
Apparel
1.82%
$454
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 2002
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 1918–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,191
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $1,191 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,191; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,191 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2002/