$100 in 1919 is worth $1,451 in 2018,
because prices increased 1351.5% over that period, an average of
2.74% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$1,451
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1351.5%
Average inflation rate
2.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,451
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,351
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1919 → 2018
$1,451
$100 in 2018 → 1919
$6.89
What happened to prices between 1919 and 2018
Between 1919 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1351.5%, which works out to an average of
2.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2018: the 1919 dollar
lost 93.1% of its purchasing power over
these 99 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 2018 at the same ratio, 14.51: $1,000 becomes
$14,515, and $10,000 becomes $145,149.
Amount in 1919
Value in 2018
$1.00
$14.51
$5.00
$72.57
$10.00
$145
$20.00
$290
$50.00
$726
$100
$1,451
$500
$7,257
$1,000
$14,515
$5,000
$72,574
$10,000
$145,149
$100,000
$1,451,486
$1,000,000
$14,514,855
Inflation by spending category, 1919–2018
Between 1919 and 2018, food rose the most, up 1263.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 247.1%, against 1351.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.74%
$1,451
Food
2.67%
$1,363
Apparel
1.26%
$347
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 2018
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–2018 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$96.53
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.92
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$171
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$224
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$476
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$755
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$995
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,260
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,451
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $212 by
1969, on its way to $1,451 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 1919 had the buying
power of $1,451; 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 1919 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,451 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-2018/