$100 in 1920 is worth $520 in 1984,
because prices increased 419.5% over that period, an average of
2.61% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$520
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
419.5%
Average inflation rate
2.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$520
Price difference ($100 base)
$420
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1920 → 1984
$520
$100 in 1984 → 1920
$19.25
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1984
Between 1920 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 419.5%, which works out to an average of
2.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1984: the 1920 dollar
lost 80.8% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 1984 at the same ratio, 5.20: $1,000 becomes
$5,195, and $10,000 becomes $51,950.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1984
$1.00
$5.20
$5.00
$25.98
$10.00
$51.95
$20.00
$104
$50.00
$260
$100
$520
$500
$2,598
$1,000
$5,195
$5,000
$25,975
$10,000
$51,950
$100,000
$519,500
$1,000,000
$5,195,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1984
Between 1920 and 1984, food rose the most, up 391.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 136.9%, against 419.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.61%
$520
Food
2.52%
$491
Apparel
1.36%
$237
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 1984
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 1920–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$520
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $121 by
1950, on its way to $520 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $520; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1984: $100 is worth $520 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1984/