$100 in 1918 is worth $1,570 in 2015,
because prices increased 1469.6% over that period, an average of
2.88% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,570
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1469.6%
Average inflation rate
2.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,570
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,470
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1918 → 2015
$1,570
$100 in 2015 → 1918
$6.37
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2015
Between 1918 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1469.6%, which works out to an average of
2.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2015: the 1918 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 97 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 2015 at the same ratio, 15.70: $1,000 becomes
$15,696, and $10,000 becomes $156,965.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2015
$1.00
$15.70
$5.00
$78.48
$10.00
$157
$20.00
$314
$50.00
$785
$100
$1,570
$500
$7,848
$1,000
$15,696
$5,000
$78,482
$10,000
$156,965
$100,000
$1,569,649
$1,000,000
$15,696,490
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2015
Between 1918 and 2015, food rose the most, up 1380.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 361.2%, against 1469.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.88%
$1,570
Food
2.82%
$1,480
Apparel
1.59%
$461
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 2015
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 1918–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,570
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $230 by
1968, on its way to $1,570 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,570; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,570 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2015/