$100 in 1920 is worth $723 in 1993,
because prices increased 622.5% over that period, an average of
2.75% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$723
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
622.5%
Average inflation rate
2.75% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$723
Price difference ($100 base)
$623
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1920 → 1993
$723
$100 in 1993 → 1920
$13.84
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1993
Between 1920 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 622.5%, which works out to an average of
2.75% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1993: the 1920 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 1993 at the same ratio, 7.22: $1,000 becomes
$7,225, and $10,000 becomes $72,250.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1993
$1.00
$7.23
$5.00
$36.13
$10.00
$72.25
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$361
$100
$723
$500
$3,613
$1,000
$7,225
$5,000
$36,125
$10,000
$72,250
$100,000
$722,500
$1,000,000
$7,225,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1993
Between 1920 and 1993, food rose the most, up 571.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 210.2%, against 622.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.75%
$723
Food
2.64%
$671
Apparel
1.56%
$310
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 1993
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 1920–1993 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
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$723
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $134 by
1955, on its way to $723 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $723; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1993: $100 is worth $723 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1993/