$100 in 1920 is worth $222 in 1973,
because prices increased 122.0% over that period, an average of
1.52% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$222
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
122.0%
Average inflation rate
1.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$222
Price difference ($100 base)
$122
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1920 → 1973
$222
$100 in 1973 → 1920
$45.05
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1973
Between 1920 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 122.0%, which works out to an average of
1.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.45 buys in 1973: the 1920 dollar
lost 55.0% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.22: $1,000 becomes
$2,220, and $10,000 becomes $22,200.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.22
$5.00
$11.10
$10.00
$22.20
$20.00
$44.40
$50.00
$111
$100
$222
$500
$1,110
$1,000
$2,220
$5,000
$11,100
$10,000
$22,200
$100,000
$222,000
$1,000,000
$2,220,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1973
Between 1920 and 1973, food rose the most, up 129.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 49.9%, against 122.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.52%
$222
Food
1.58%
$230
Apparel
0.77%
$150
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 1973
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 1920–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$222
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 $222 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $222; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1973: $100 is worth $222 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1973/