$100 in 1920 is worth $326 in 1978,
because prices increased 226.0% over that period, an average of
2.06% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$326
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
226.0%
Average inflation rate
2.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$326
Price difference ($100 base)
$226
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1920 → 1978
$326
$100 in 1978 → 1920
$30.67
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1978
Between 1920 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 226.0%, which works out to an average of
2.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.31 buys in 1978: the 1920 dollar
lost 69.3% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1978 at the same ratio, 3.26: $1,000 becomes
$3,260, and $10,000 becomes $32,600.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1978
$1.00
$3.26
$5.00
$16.30
$10.00
$32.60
$20.00
$65.20
$50.00
$163
$100
$326
$500
$1,630
$1,000
$3,260
$5,000
$16,300
$10,000
$32,600
$100,000
$326,000
$1,000,000
$3,260,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1978
Between 1920 and 1978, food rose the most, up 242.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 88.9%, against 226.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.06%
$326
Food
2.15%
$343
Apparel
1.10%
$189
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$326
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $121 by
1948, on its way to $326 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $326; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1978: $100 is worth $326 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1978/