$100 in 1918 is worth $1,251 in 2004,
because prices increased 1151.0% over that period, an average of
2.98% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,251
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1151.0%
Average inflation rate
2.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,251
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,151
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1918 → 2004
$1,251
$100 in 2004 → 1918
$7.99
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2004
Between 1918 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1151.0%, which works out to an average of
2.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2004: the 1918 dollar
lost 92.0% of its purchasing power over
these 86 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 2004 at the same ratio, 12.51: $1,000 becomes
$12,510, and $10,000 becomes $125,099.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2004
$1.00
$12.51
$5.00
$62.55
$10.00
$125
$20.00
$250
$50.00
$625
$100
$1,251
$500
$6,255
$1,000
$12,510
$5,000
$62,550
$10,000
$125,099
$100,000
$1,250,993
$1,000,000
$12,509,934
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2004
Between 1918 and 2004, food rose the most, up 1015.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 341.0%, against 1151.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.98%
$1,251
Food
2.84%
$1,115
Apparel
1.74%
$441
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 2004
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 1918–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$1,251
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $203 by
1963, on its way to $1,251 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,251; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2004: $100 is worth $1,251 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2004/