$100 in 1920 is worth $84.00 in 1922,
because prices declined 16.0% over that period, an average of
8.35% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$84.00
in 1922
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-16.0%
Average inflation rate
-8.35% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$84.00
Price difference ($100 base)
-$16.00
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1922
16.8
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
$100 in 1920 → 1922
$84.00
$100 in 1922 → 1920
$119
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1922
Between 1920 and 1922, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 16.8.
Cumulatively, prices declined 16.0%, which works out to an average of
-8.35% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$1.19 buys in 1922: the 1920 dollar
gained 19.0% in purchasing power over
these 2 years.
1920 was the last year of the inflation that had built since the war began:
consumer prices rose 15.6% for the year, leaving the CPI more than double its
1913 starting level after seven straight years of increases.
The boom behind those increases turned to bust before the year was over. The
Federal Reserve, worried about speculation, pushed its discount rate to a
record 7% that spring, and wholesale prices, which had led the wartime
runup, began collapsing within months. The National Bureau of Economic
Research dates the resulting downturn from January 1920 to July 1921, one of
the shortest but steepest contractions in U.S. history, and consumer prices
followed into outright decline, falling 10.5% in 1921. Two constitutional
changes reshaped the country that year, too. The 18th Amendment’s ban on
alcohol took legal effect January 17, enforced under the Volstead Act
Congress had passed the previous October. Then, on August 18, Tennessee’s
ratification of the 19th Amendment secured women’s right to vote nationwide,
and women cast ballots in a presidential election for the first time that
November, when Warren Harding won on a promise to return the country to
“normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic, and rising prices. First-class
postage held at 2 cents, unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1920 amount converts to 1922 at the same ratio, 0.84: $1,000 becomes
$840, and $10,000 becomes $8,400.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1922
$1.00
$0.84
$5.00
$4.20
$10.00
$8.40
$20.00
$16.80
$50.00
$42.00
$100
$84.00
$500
$420
$1,000
$840
$5,000
$4,200
$10,000
$8,400
$100,000
$84,000
$1,000,000
$840,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1922
Every category fell between 1920 and 1922: apparel the most, down 37.4%, and food the least, down 29.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1922, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
-8.35%
$84.00
Food
-15.77%
$70.95
Apparel
-20.85%
$62.65
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1920: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $89.50 by
1921, on its way to $84.00 in 1922; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at -6.1% in 1922, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1922, prices fell 6.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $84.00; the year's average CPI of 16.8 is the level
behind every 1922 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1922: $100 is worth $84.00 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1922/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1922. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1922/