$100 in 1920 is worth $150 in 1961,
because prices increased 49.5% over that period, an average of
0.99% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$150
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
49.5%
Average inflation rate
0.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$150
Price difference ($100 base)
$49.50
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1920 → 1961
$150
$100 in 1961 → 1920
$66.89
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1961
Between 1920 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 49.5%, which works out to an average of
0.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1961: the 1920 dollar
lost 33.1% of its purchasing power over
these 41 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 1961 at the same ratio, 1.49: $1,000 becomes
$1,495, and $10,000 becomes $14,950.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.49
$5.00
$7.48
$10.00
$14.95
$20.00
$29.90
$50.00
$74.75
$100
$150
$500
$747
$1,000
$1,495
$5,000
$7,475
$10,000
$14,950
$100,000
$149,500
$1,000,000
$1,495,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1961
Between 1920 and 1961, food rose the most, up 44.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 7.0%, against 49.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.99%
$150
Food
0.91%
$145
Apparel
0.16%
$107
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 1961
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 1920–1961 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$148
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$150
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $70.00 by
1940, on its way to $150 in 1961; 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: 1961
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $150; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1961: $100 is worth $150 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1961/