$100 in 1920 is worth $815 in 1998,
because prices increased 715.0% over that period, an average of
2.73% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$815
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
715.0%
Average inflation rate
2.73% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$815
Price difference ($100 base)
$715
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1920 → 1998
$815
$100 in 1998 → 1920
$12.27
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1998
Between 1920 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 715.0%, which works out to an average of
2.73% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1998: the 1920 dollar
lost 87.7% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 1998 at the same ratio, 8.15: $1,000 becomes
$8,150, and $10,000 becomes $81,500.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1998
$1.00
$8.15
$5.00
$40.75
$10.00
$81.50
$20.00
$163
$50.00
$408
$100
$815
$500
$4,075
$1,000
$8,150
$5,000
$40,750
$10,000
$81,500
$100,000
$815,000
$1,000,000
$8,150,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1998
Between 1920 and 1998, food rose the most, up 665.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 208.6%, against 715.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.73%
$815
Food
2.64%
$765
Apparel
1.46%
$309
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 1998
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 1920–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$815
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $148 by
1960, on its way to $815 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $815; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1998: $100 is worth $815 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1998/