$100 in 1918 is worth $1,219 in 2003,
because prices increased 1118.5% over that period, an average of
2.99% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,219
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1118.5%
Average inflation rate
2.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,219
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,119
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1918 → 2003
$1,219
$100 in 2003 → 1918
$8.21
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2003
Between 1918 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1118.5%, which works out to an average of
2.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2003: the 1918 dollar
lost 91.8% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 2003 at the same ratio, 12.19: $1,000 becomes
$12,185, and $10,000 becomes $121,854.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2003
$1.00
$12.19
$5.00
$60.93
$10.00
$122
$20.00
$244
$50.00
$609
$100
$1,219
$500
$6,093
$1,000
$12,185
$5,000
$60,927
$10,000
$121,854
$100,000
$1,218,543
$1,000,000
$12,185,430
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2003
Between 1918 and 2003, food rose the most, up 977.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 342.9%, against 1118.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.99%
$1,219
Food
2.84%
$1,078
Apparel
1.77%
$443
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 2003
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 1918–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,219
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $191 by
1958, on its way to $1,219 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,219; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,219 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2003/