$100 in 1918 is worth $2,077 in 2024,
because prices increased 1977.4% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$2,077
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1977.4%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,077
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,977
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1918 → 2024
$2,077
$100 in 2024 → 1918
$4.81
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2024
Between 1918 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1977.4%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2024: the 1918 dollar
lost 95.2% of its purchasing power over
these 106 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 2024 at the same ratio, 20.77: $1,000 becomes
$20,774, and $10,000 becomes $207,741.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2024
$1.00
$20.77
$5.00
$104
$10.00
$208
$20.00
$415
$50.00
$1,039
$100
$2,077
$500
$10,387
$1,000
$20,774
$5,000
$103,871
$10,000
$207,741
$100,000
$2,077,411
$1,000,000
$20,774,106
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2024
Between 1918 and 2024, food rose the most, up 1877.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 381.6%, against 1977.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$2,077
Food
2.86%
$1,978
Apparel
1.49%
$482
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 2024
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 1918–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$2,077
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $294 by
1973, on its way to $2,077 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $2,077; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2024: $100 is worth $2,077 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2024/