$100 in 1918 is worth $2,132 in 2025,
because prices increased 2032.1% over that period, an average of
2.90% a year.
$100 in 1918 has
the same buying power as
$2,132
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2032.1%
Average inflation rate
2.90% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$2,132
Price difference ($100 base)
$2,032
CPI in 1918
15.1
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1918
17.97%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1918 → 2025
$2,132
$100 in 2025 → 1918
$4.69
What happened to prices between 1918 and 2025
Between 1918 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 15.1 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2032.1%, which works out to an average of
2.90% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1918 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2025: the 1918 dollar
lost 95.3% of its purchasing power over
these 107 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 2025 at the same ratio, 21.32: $1,000 becomes
$21,321, and $10,000 becomes $213,207.
Amount in 1918
Value in 2025
$1.00
$21.32
$5.00
$107
$10.00
$213
$20.00
$426
$50.00
$1,066
$100
$2,132
$500
$10,660
$1,000
$21,321
$5,000
$106,604
$10,000
$213,207
$100,000
$2,132,073
$1,000,000
$21,320,728
Inflation by spending category, 1918–2025
Between 1918 and 2025, food rose the most, up 1933.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 381.0%, against 2032.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1918
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1918 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.90%
$2,132
Food
2.86%
$2,033
Apparel
1.48%
$481
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 2025
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 1918–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$2,132
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1918
$100 from 1918 had already become $294 by
1973, on its way to $2,132 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1918 had the buying
power of $2,132; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1918 to 2025: $100 is worth $2,132 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1918 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1918-to-2025/