$100 in 1920 is worth $741 in 1994,
because prices increased 641.0% over that period, an average of
2.74% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$741
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
641.0%
Average inflation rate
2.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$741
Price difference ($100 base)
$641
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1920 → 1994
$741
$100 in 1994 → 1920
$13.50
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1994
Between 1920 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 641.0%, which works out to an average of
2.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1994: the 1920 dollar
lost 86.5% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 1994 at the same ratio, 7.41: $1,000 becomes
$7,410, and $10,000 becomes $74,100.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1994
$1.00
$7.41
$5.00
$37.05
$10.00
$74.10
$20.00
$148
$50.00
$370
$100
$741
$500
$3,705
$1,000
$7,410
$5,000
$37,050
$10,000
$74,100
$100,000
$741,000
$1,000,000
$7,410,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1994
Between 1920 and 1994, food rose the most, up 587.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 209.5%, against 641.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.74%
$741
Food
2.64%
$687
Apparel
1.54%
$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 1994
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 1920–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$741
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $134 by
1955, on its way to $741 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $741; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1994: $100 is worth $741 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1994/