$100 in 1920 is worth $112 in 1947,
because prices increased 11.5% over that period, an average of
0.40% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$112
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
11.5%
Average inflation rate
0.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$112
Price difference ($100 base)
$11.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1920 → 1947
$112
$100 in 1947 → 1920
$89.69
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1947
Between 1920 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 11.5%, which works out to an average of
0.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.90 buys in 1947: the 1920 dollar
lost 10.3% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.11: $1,000 becomes
$1,115, and $10,000 becomes $11,150.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.12
$5.00
$5.58
$10.00
$11.15
$20.00
$22.30
$50.00
$55.75
$100
$112
$500
$558
$1,000
$1,115
$5,000
$5,575
$10,000
$11,150
$100,000
$111,500
$1,000,000
$1,115,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1947
Between 1920 and 1947, food rose the most, up 14.8%, while apparel fell 7.4%, against 11.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.40%
$112
Food
0.51%
$115
Apparel
-0.29%
$92.58
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1947 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1920, at end
1920–1930
-1.79%
-16.5%
$83.50
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$70.00
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$112
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $65.00 by
1933, on its way to $112 in 1947; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $112; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1947: $100 is worth $112 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1947/