$100 in 1920 is worth $833 in 1999,
because prices increased 733.0% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$833
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
733.0%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$833
Price difference ($100 base)
$733
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1920 → 1999
$833
$100 in 1999 → 1920
$12.00
What happened to prices between 1920 and 1999
Between 1920 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 733.0%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1999: the 1920 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 1999 at the same ratio, 8.33: $1,000 becomes
$8,330, and $10,000 becomes $83,300.
Amount in 1920
Value in 1999
$1.00
$8.33
$5.00
$41.65
$10.00
$83.30
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$417
$100
$833
$500
$4,165
$1,000
$8,330
$5,000
$41,650
$10,000
$83,300
$100,000
$833,000
$1,000,000
$8,330,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–1999
Between 1920 and 1999, food rose the most, up 681.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 204.6%, against 733.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$833
Food
2.64%
$781
Apparel
1.42%
$305
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 1999
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 1920–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$833
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $148 by
1960, on its way to $833 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $833; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 1999: $100 is worth $833 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-1999/