$100 in 1920 is worth $130 in 1951,
because prices increased 30.0% over that period, an average of
0.85% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$130
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
30.0%
Average inflation rate
0.85% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$130
Price difference ($100 base)
$30.00
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1920 → 1951
$130
$100 in 1951 → 1920
$76.92
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1951
Between 1920 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 30.0%, which works out to an average of
0.85% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.77 buys in 1951: the 1920 dollar
lost 23.1% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.30: $1,000 becomes
$1,300, and $10,000 becomes $13,000.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.30
$5.00
$6.50
$10.00
$13.00
$20.00
$26.00
$50.00
$65.00
$100
$130
$500
$650
$1,000
$1,300
$5,000
$6,500
$10,000
$13,000
$100,000
$130,000
$1,000,000
$1,300,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1951
Between 1920 and 1951, food rose the most, up 34.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.9%, against 30.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.85%
$130
Food
0.96%
$134
Apparel
0.06%
$102
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1951 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
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$130
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $69.50 by
1936, on its way to $130 in 1951; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1951
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $130; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1951: $100 is worth $130 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1951/