$100 in 1920 is worth $65.00 in 1933,
because prices declined 35.0% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$65.00
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-35.0%
Average inflation rate
-3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$65.00
Price difference ($100 base)
-$35.00
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1920 → 1933
$65.00
$100 in 1933 → 1920
$154
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1933
Between 1920 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices declined 35.0%, which works out to an average of
-3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$1.54 buys in 1933: the 1920 dollar
gained 53.8% in purchasing power over
these 13 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 1933 at the same ratio, 0.65: $1,000 becomes
$650, and $10,000 becomes $6,500.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1933
$1.00
$0.65
$5.00
$3.25
$10.00
$6.50
$20.00
$13.00
$50.00
$32.50
$100
$65.00
$500
$325
$1,000
$650
$5,000
$3,250
$10,000
$6,500
$100,000
$65,000
$1,000,000
$650,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1933
Every category fell between 1920 and 1933: apparel the most, down 56.4%, and food the least, down 50.5%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
-3.26%
$65.00
Food
-5.26%
$49.52
Apparel
-6.18%
$43.62
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 1933
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1933 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$65.00
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 $65.00 in 1933; 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 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $65.00; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1933: $100 is worth $65.00 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1933/