$100 in 1920 is worth $68.50 in 1932,
because prices declined 31.5% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$68.50
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-31.5%
Average inflation rate
-3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$68.50
Price difference ($100 base)
-$31.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1920 → 1932
$68.50
$100 in 1932 → 1920
$146
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1932
Between 1920 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 31.5%, which works out to an average of
-3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$1.46 buys in 1932: the 1920 dollar
gained 46.0% in purchasing power over
these 12 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 1932 at the same ratio, 0.68: $1,000 becomes
$685, and $10,000 becomes $6,850.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1932
$1.00
$0.68
$5.00
$3.43
$10.00
$6.85
$20.00
$13.70
$50.00
$34.25
$100
$68.50
$500
$342
$1,000
$685
$5,000
$3,425
$10,000
$6,850
$100,000
$68,500
$1,000,000
$685,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1932
Every category fell between 1920 and 1932: apparel the most, down 54.8%, and food the least, down 49.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
-3.10%
$68.50
Food
-5.46%
$50.95
Apparel
-6.40%
$45.24
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–).
Decade by decade: 1920 to 1932
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (9.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1932 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1932
-9.43%
-18.0%
$68.50
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $88.50 by
1926, on its way to $68.50 in 1932; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.3% in 1925, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $68.50; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1932: $100 is worth $68.50 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1932/