$100 in 1920 is worth $653 in 1990,
because prices increased 553.5% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$653
in 1990
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
553.5%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$653
Price difference ($100 base)
$553
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1990
130.7
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1990
5.40%
$100 in 1920 → 1990
$653
$100 in 1990 → 1920
$15.30
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1990
Between 1920 and 1990, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 130.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 553.5%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1990: the 1920 dollar
lost 84.7% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 1990 at the same ratio, 6.53: $1,000 becomes
$6,535, and $10,000 becomes $65,350.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1990
$1.00
$6.53
$5.00
$32.68
$10.00
$65.35
$20.00
$131
$50.00
$327
$100
$653
$500
$3,267
$1,000
$6,535
$5,000
$32,675
$10,000
$65,350
$100,000
$653,500
$1,000,000
$6,535,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1990
Between 1920 and 1990, food rose the most, up 530.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.9%, against 553.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1990, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$653
Food
2.67%
$630
Apparel
1.52%
$288
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 1990
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 1920–1990 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$653
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $134 by
1955, on its way to $653 in 1990; 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: 1990
In 1990, prices rose 5.4% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $653; the year's average CPI of 130.7 is the level
behind every 1990 figure on this page.
In 1990, the median U.S. household earned about $29,900, gas averaged $1.15 a
gallon, and mailing a letter cost a quarter. Inflation ran hot at 5.4% for the
year, its highest rate since 1982, pushed up by an oil shock after Iraq’s
invasion of Kuwait, and the economy tipped into recession that summer. It was
the last gasp of elevated inflation before the long calm of the 1990s.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1990: $100 is worth $653 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1990/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1990. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1990/