$100 in 1920 is worth $70.50 in 1938,
because prices declined 29.5% over that period, an average of
1.92% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$70.50
in 1938
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-29.5%
Average inflation rate
-1.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$70.50
Price difference ($100 base)
-$29.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1938
14.1
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
$100 in 1920 → 1938
$70.50
$100 in 1938 → 1920
$142
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1938
Between 1920 and 1938, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 14.1.
Cumulatively, prices declined 29.5%, which works out to an average of
-1.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$1.42 buys in 1938: the 1920 dollar
gained 41.8% in purchasing power over
these 18 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 1938 at the same ratio, 0.70: $1,000 becomes
$705, and $10,000 becomes $7,050.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1938
$1.00
$0.71
$5.00
$3.53
$10.00
$7.05
$20.00
$14.10
$50.00
$35.25
$100
$70.50
$500
$353
$1,000
$705
$5,000
$3,525
$10,000
$7,050
$100,000
$70,500
$1,000,000
$705,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1938
Every category fell between 1920 and 1938: apparel the most, down 49.2%, and food the least, down 42.4%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1938, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.92%
$70.50
Food
-3.02%
$57.62
Apparel
-3.69%
$50.81
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 1938
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1938 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1938
-2.09%
-15.6%
$70.50
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $85.50 by
1929, on its way to $70.50 in 1938; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1938, prices fell 2.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $70.50; the year's average CPI of 14.1 is the level
behind every 1938 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1938: $100 is worth $70.50 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1938/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1938. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1938/