$100 in 1920 is worth $498 in 1983,
because prices increased 398.0% over that period, an average of
2.58% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$498
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
398.0%
Average inflation rate
2.58% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$498
Price difference ($100 base)
$398
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1920 → 1983
$498
$100 in 1983 → 1920
$20.08
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1983
Between 1920 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 398.0%, which works out to an average of
2.58% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.20 buys in 1983: the 1920 dollar
lost 79.9% of its purchasing power over
these 63 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 1983 at the same ratio, 4.98: $1,000 becomes
$4,980, and $10,000 becomes $49,800.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1983
$1.00
$4.98
$5.00
$24.90
$10.00
$49.80
$20.00
$99.60
$50.00
$249
$100
$498
$500
$2,490
$1,000
$4,980
$5,000
$24,900
$10,000
$49,800
$100,000
$498,000
$1,000,000
$4,980,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1983
Between 1920 and 1983, food rose the most, up 373.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 132.5%, against 398.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.58%
$498
Food
2.50%
$473
Apparel
1.35%
$232
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1920s (1.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1920–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$498
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $121 by
1950, on its way to $498 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $498; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1983: $100 is worth $498 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1983/