$100 in 1920 is worth $136 in 1956,
because prices increased 36.0% over that period, an average of
0.86% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$136
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
36.0%
Average inflation rate
0.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$136
Price difference ($100 base)
$36.00
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1920 → 1956
$136
$100 in 1956 → 1920
$73.53
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1956
Between 1920 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 36.0%, which works out to an average of
0.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.74 buys in 1956: the 1920 dollar
lost 26.5% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.36: $1,000 becomes
$1,360, and $10,000 becomes $13,600.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.36
$5.00
$6.80
$10.00
$13.60
$20.00
$27.20
$50.00
$68.00
$100
$136
$500
$680
$1,000
$1,360
$5,000
$6,800
$10,000
$13,600
$100,000
$136,000
$1,000,000
$1,360,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1956
Between 1920 and 1956, food rose the most, up 33.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 1.4%, against 36.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.86%
$136
Food
0.80%
$133
Apparel
0.04%
$101
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 1956
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 1920–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$136
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $70.50 by
1938, on its way to $136 in 1956; 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: 1956
In 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $136; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1956: $100 is worth $136 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1956/