$100 in 1920 is worth $121 in 1948,
because prices increased 20.5% over that period, an average of
0.67% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.5%
Average inflation rate
0.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1920 → 1948
$121
$100 in 1948 → 1920
$82.99
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1948
Between 1920 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.5%, which works out to an average of
0.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1948: the 1920 dollar
lost 17.0% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,205, and $10,000 becomes $12,050.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.21
$5.00
$6.03
$10.00
$12.05
$20.00
$24.10
$50.00
$60.25
$100
$121
$500
$603
$1,000
$1,205
$5,000
$6,025
$10,000
$12,050
$100,000
$120,500
$1,000,000
$1,205,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1948
Between 1920 and 1948, food rose the most, up 24.3%, while apparel fell 1.4%, against 20.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.67%
$121
Food
0.78%
$124
Apparel
-0.05%
$98.61
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1948 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
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $67.00 by
1934, on its way to $121 in 1948; 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 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $121; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1948: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1948/