$100 in 1920 is worth $269 in 1975,
because prices increased 169.0% over that period, an average of
1.82% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$269
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
169.0%
Average inflation rate
1.82% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$269
Price difference ($100 base)
$169
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1920 → 1975
$269
$100 in 1975 → 1920
$37.17
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1975
Between 1920 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 169.0%, which works out to an average of
1.82% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.37 buys in 1975: the 1920 dollar
lost 62.8% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 1975 at the same ratio, 2.69: $1,000 becomes
$2,690, and $10,000 becomes $26,900.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1975
$1.00
$2.69
$5.00
$13.45
$10.00
$26.90
$20.00
$53.80
$50.00
$135
$100
$269
$500
$1,345
$1,000
$2,690
$5,000
$13,450
$10,000
$26,900
$100,000
$269,000
$1,000,000
$2,690,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1975
Between 1920 and 1975, food rose the most, up 184.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 68.2%, against 169.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.82%
$269
Food
1.92%
$285
Apparel
0.95%
$168
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$269
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $121 by
1948, on its way to $269 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $269; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1975: $100 is worth $269 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1975/