$100 in 1920 is worth $483 in 1982,
because prices increased 382.5% over that period, an average of
2.57% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$483
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
382.5%
Average inflation rate
2.57% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$483
Price difference ($100 base)
$383
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1920 → 1982
$483
$100 in 1982 → 1920
$20.73
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1982
Between 1920 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 382.5%, which works out to an average of
2.57% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1982: the 1920 dollar
lost 79.3% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1982 at the same ratio, 4.83: $1,000 becomes
$4,825, and $10,000 becomes $48,250.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1982
$1.00
$4.83
$5.00
$24.13
$10.00
$48.25
$20.00
$96.50
$50.00
$241
$100
$483
$500
$2,413
$1,000
$4,825
$5,000
$24,125
$10,000
$48,250
$100,000
$482,500
$1,000,000
$4,825,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1982
Between 1920 and 1982, food rose the most, up 363.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 126.9%, against 382.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.57%
$483
Food
2.51%
$464
Apparel
1.33%
$227
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1982 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$412
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$483
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $121 by
1950, on its way to $483 in 1982; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $483; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1982: $100 is worth $483 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1982/