$100 in 1920 is worth $203 in 1971,
because prices increased 102.5% over that period, an average of
1.39% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$203
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
102.5%
Average inflation rate
1.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$203
Price difference ($100 base)
$103
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1920 → 1971
$203
$100 in 1971 → 1920
$49.38
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1971
Between 1920 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 102.5%, which works out to an average of
1.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.49 buys in 1971: the 1920 dollar
lost 50.6% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.02: $1,000 becomes
$2,025, and $10,000 becomes $20,250.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.03
$5.00
$10.13
$10.00
$20.25
$20.00
$40.50
$50.00
$101
$100
$203
$500
$1,013
$1,000
$2,025
$5,000
$10,125
$10,000
$20,250
$100,000
$202,500
$1,000,000
$2,025,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1971
Between 1920 and 1971, food rose the most, up 92.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 41.8%, against 102.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.39%
$203
Food
1.29%
$192
Apparel
0.69%
$142
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 1971
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 1920–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$194
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$203
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $97.50 by
1946, on its way to $203 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $203; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1971: $100 is worth $203 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1971/