$100 in 1918 is worth $1,490 in 2011,
because prices increased 1389.7% over that period, an average of
2.95% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,490
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1389.7%
Average inflation rate
2.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,490
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,390
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1918 → 2011
$1,490
$100 in 2011 → 1918
$6.71
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2011
Between 1918 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1389.7%, which works out to an average of
2.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2011: the 1918 dollar
lost 93.3% of its purchasing power over
these 93 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 2011 at the same ratio, 14.90: $1,000 becomes
$14,897, and $10,000 becomes $148,966.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2011
$1.00
$14.90
$5.00
$74.48
$10.00
$149
$20.00
$298
$50.00
$745
$100
$1,490
$500
$7,448
$1,000
$14,897
$5,000
$74,483
$10,000
$148,966
$100,000
$1,489,662
$1,000,000
$14,896,623
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2011
Between 1918 and 2011, food rose the most, up 1264.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 347.3%, against 1389.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.95%
$1,490
Food
2.85%
$1,364
Apparel
1.62%
$447
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 2011
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 1918–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,444
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,490
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $203 by
1963, on its way to $1,490 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,490; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,490 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2011/