$100 in 1918 is worth $1,795 in 2021,
because prices increased 1694.5% over that period, an average of
2.84% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$1,795
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1694.5%
Average inflation rate
2.84% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,795
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,695
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1918 → 2021
$1,795
$100 in 2021 → 1918
$5.57
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2021
Between 1918 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1694.5%, which works out to an average of
2.84% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2021: the 1918 dollar
lost 94.4% of its purchasing power over
these 103 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 2021 at the same ratio, 17.95: $1,000 becomes
$17,945, and $10,000 becomes $179,450.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2021
$1.00
$17.95
$5.00
$89.73
$10.00
$179
$20.00
$359
$50.00
$897
$100
$1,795
$500
$8,973
$1,000
$17,945
$5,000
$89,725
$10,000
$179,450
$100,000
$1,794,503
$1,000,000
$17,945,033
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2021
Between 1918 and 2021, food rose the most, up 1563.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 343.2%, against 1694.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.84%
$1,795
Food
2.77%
$1,663
Apparel
1.46%
$443
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 2021
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 1918–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,714
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$1,795
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $230 by
1968, on its way to $1,795 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $1,795; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2021: $100 is worth $1,795 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2021/