$100 in 1920 is worth $135 in 1954,
because prices increased 34.5% over that period, an average of
0.88% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$135
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
34.5%
Average inflation rate
0.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$135
Price difference ($100 base)
$34.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1920 → 1954
$135
$100 in 1954 → 1920
$74.35
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1954
Between 1920 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 34.5%, which works out to an average of
0.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1954: the 1920 dollar
lost 25.7% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.34: $1,000 becomes
$1,345, and $10,000 becomes $13,450.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.35
$5.00
$6.73
$10.00
$13.45
$20.00
$26.90
$50.00
$67.25
$100
$135
$500
$673
$1,000
$1,345
$5,000
$6,725
$10,000
$13,450
$100,000
$134,500
$1,000,000
$1,345,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1954
Between 1920 and 1954, food rose the most, up 34.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 0.0%, against 34.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.88%
$135
Food
0.87%
$134
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 1954
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 1920–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$135
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 $135 in 1954; 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: 1954
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $135; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1954: $100 is worth $135 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1954/