$100 in 1920 is worth $363 in 1979,
because prices increased 263.0% over that period, an average of
2.21% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$363
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
263.0%
Average inflation rate
2.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$363
Price difference ($100 base)
$263
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1920 → 1979
$363
$100 in 1979 → 1920
$27.55
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1979
Between 1920 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 263.0%, which works out to an average of
2.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.28 buys in 1979: the 1920 dollar
lost 72.5% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1979 at the same ratio, 3.63: $1,000 becomes
$3,630, and $10,000 becomes $36,300.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1979
$1.00
$3.63
$5.00
$18.15
$10.00
$36.30
$20.00
$72.60
$50.00
$182
$100
$363
$500
$1,815
$1,000
$3,630
$5,000
$18,150
$10,000
$36,300
$100,000
$363,000
$1,000,000
$3,630,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1979
Between 1920 and 1979, food rose the most, up 280.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 97.0%, against 263.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.21%
$363
Food
2.29%
$380
Apparel
1.16%
$197
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$363
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $121 by
1950, on its way to $363 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $363; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1979: $100 is worth $363 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1979/