$100 in 1920 is worth $69.50 in 1936,
because prices declined 30.5% over that period, an average of
2.25% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$69.50
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-30.5%
Average inflation rate
-2.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$69.50
Price difference ($100 base)
-$30.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1920 → 1936
$69.50
$100 in 1936 → 1920
$144
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1936
Between 1920 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 30.5%, which works out to an average of
-2.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$1.44 buys in 1936: the 1920 dollar
gained 43.9% in purchasing power over
these 16 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 1936 at the same ratio, 0.70: $1,000 becomes
$695, and $10,000 becomes $6,950.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1936
$1.00
$0.70
$5.00
$3.48
$10.00
$6.95
$20.00
$13.90
$50.00
$34.75
$100
$69.50
$500
$348
$1,000
$695
$5,000
$3,475
$10,000
$6,950
$100,000
$69,500
$1,000,000
$695,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1936
Every category fell between 1920 and 1936: apparel the most, down 51.3%, and food the least, down 40.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.25%
$69.50
Food
-3.14%
$60.00
Apparel
-4.39%
$48.72
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 1936
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1936 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$69.50
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $85.50 by
1928, on its way to $69.50 in 1936; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.1% in 1934, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $69.50; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1936: $100 is worth $69.50 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1936/