$100 in 1918 is worth $1,421 in 2009,
because prices increased 1320.8% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,421
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1320.8%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,421
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,321
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1918 → 2009
$1,421
$100 in 2009 → 1918
$7.04
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2009
Between 1918 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1320.8%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2009: the 1918 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 91 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 2009 at the same ratio, 14.21: $1,000 becomes
$14,208, and $10,000 becomes $142,077.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2009
$1.00
$14.21
$5.00
$71.04
$10.00
$142
$20.00
$284
$50.00
$710
$100
$1,421
$500
$7,104
$1,000
$14,208
$5,000
$71,039
$10,000
$142,077
$100,000
$1,420,775
$1,000,000
$14,207,748
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2009
Between 1918 and 2009, food rose the most, up 1205.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 339.8%, against 1320.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$1,421
Food
2.86%
$1,305
Apparel
1.64%
$440
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 2009
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 1918–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,421
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $203 by
1963, on its way to $1,421 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,421; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,421 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2009/