$100 in 1920 is worth $141 in 1957,
because prices increased 40.5% over that period, an average of
0.92% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
40.5%
Average inflation rate
0.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1920 → 1957
$141
$100 in 1957 → 1920
$71.17
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1957
Between 1920 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 40.5%, which works out to an average of
0.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1957: the 1920 dollar
lost 28.8% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,405, and $10,000 becomes $14,050.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.03
$10.00
$14.05
$20.00
$28.10
$50.00
$70.25
$100
$141
$500
$703
$1,000
$1,405
$5,000
$7,025
$10,000
$14,050
$100,000
$140,500
$1,000,000
$1,405,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1957
Between 1920 and 1957, food rose the most, up 37.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 3.2%, against 40.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.92%
$141
Food
0.87%
$138
Apparel
0.09%
$103
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 1957
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 1920–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$141
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 $141 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $141; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1957: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1957/