$100 in 1920 is worth $121 in 1950,
because prices increased 20.5% over that period, an average of
0.62% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$121
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
20.5%
Average inflation rate
0.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$121
Price difference ($100 base)
$20.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1920 → 1950
$121
$100 in 1950 → 1920
$82.99
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1950
Between 1920 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 20.5%, which works out to an average of
0.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.83 buys in 1950: the 1920 dollar
lost 17.0% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.21: $1,000 becomes
$1,205, and $10,000 becomes $12,050.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1950
$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, 1920–1950
Between 1920 and 1950, food rose the most, up 21.0%, while apparel fell 6.5%, against 20.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.62%
$121
Food
0.64%
$121
Apparel
-0.22%
$93.50
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 1950
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1950 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$121
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $68.50 by
1935, on its way to $121 in 1950; 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 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $121; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1950: $100 is worth $121 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1950/