$100 in 1918 is worth $1,693 in 2019,
because prices increased 1593.1% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,693
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1593.1%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,693
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,593
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1918 → 2019
$1,693
$100 in 2019 → 1918
$5.91
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2019
Between 1918 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1593.1%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2019: the 1918 dollar
lost 94.1% of its purchasing power over
these 101 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 2019 at the same ratio, 16.93: $1,000 becomes
$16,931, and $10,000 becomes $169,309.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2019
$1.00
$16.93
$5.00
$84.65
$10.00
$169
$20.00
$339
$50.00
$847
$100
$1,693
$500
$8,465
$1,000
$16,931
$5,000
$84,655
$10,000
$169,309
$100,000
$1,693,093
$1,000,000
$16,930,927
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2019
Between 1918 and 2019, food rose the most, up 1446.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 354.4%, against 1593.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$1,693
Food
2.75%
$1,547
Apparel
1.51%
$454
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 2019
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 1918–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,693
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $230 by
1968, on its way to $1,693 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,693; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,693 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2019/