$100 in 1918 is worth $1,663 in 2018,
because prices increased 1563.0% over that period, an average of
2.85% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,663
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1563.0%
Average inflation rate
2.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,663
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,563
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1918 → 2018
$1,663
$100 in 2018 → 1918
$6.01
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2018
Between 1918 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1563.0%, which works out to an average of
2.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2018: the 1918 dollar
lost 94.0% of its purchasing power over
these 100 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 2018 at the same ratio, 16.63: $1,000 becomes
$16,630, and $10,000 becomes $166,296.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2018
$1.00
$16.63
$5.00
$83.15
$10.00
$166
$20.00
$333
$50.00
$831
$100
$1,663
$500
$8,315
$1,000
$16,630
$5,000
$83,148
$10,000
$166,296
$100,000
$1,662,960
$1,000,000
$16,629,603
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2018
Between 1918 and 2018, food rose the most, up 1418.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 360.3%, against 1563.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.85%
$1,663
Food
2.76%
$1,518
Apparel
1.54%
$460
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 2018
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 1918–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,663
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $230 by
1968, on its way to $1,663 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,663; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,663 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2018/