$100 in 1918 is worth $1,520 in 2012,
because prices increased 1420.5% over that period, an average of
2.94% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,520
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1420.5%
Average inflation rate
2.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,520
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,420
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1918 → 2012
$1,520
$100 in 2012 → 1918
$6.58
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2012
Between 1918 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1420.5%, which works out to an average of
2.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2012: the 1918 dollar
lost 93.4% of its purchasing power over
these 94 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 2012 at the same ratio, 15.20: $1,000 becomes
$15,205, and $10,000 becomes $152,049.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2012
$1.00
$15.20
$5.00
$76.02
$10.00
$152
$20.00
$304
$50.00
$760
$100
$1,520
$500
$7,602
$1,000
$15,205
$5,000
$76,025
$10,000
$152,049
$100,000
$1,520,490
$1,000,000
$15,204,901
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2012
Between 1918 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1299.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 362.5%, against 1420.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.94%
$1,520
Food
2.85%
$1,400
Apparel
1.64%
$463
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 2012
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 1918–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,520
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $203 by
1963, on its way to $1,520 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,520; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,520 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2012/