$100 in 1920 is worth $134 in 1953,
because prices increased 33.5% over that period, an average of
0.88% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$134
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
33.5%
Average inflation rate
0.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$134
Price difference ($100 base)
$33.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1920 → 1953
$134
$100 in 1953 → 1920
$74.91
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1953
Between 1920 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 33.5%, which works out to an average of
0.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1953: the 1920 dollar
lost 25.1% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,335, and $10,000 becomes $13,350.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.34
$5.00
$6.68
$10.00
$13.35
$20.00
$26.70
$50.00
$66.75
$100
$134
$500
$668
$1,000
$1,335
$5,000
$6,675
$10,000
$13,350
$100,000
$133,500
$1,000,000
$1,335,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1953
Between 1920 and 1953, food rose the most, up 34.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 0.0%, against 33.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.88%
$134
Food
0.91%
$135
Apparel
0.00%
$100
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 1953
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 1920–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$134
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 $134 in 1953; 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: 1953
In 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $134; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $134 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1953/