$100 in 1920 is worth $900 in 2002,
because prices increased 799.5% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$900
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
799.5%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$900
Price difference ($100 base)
$800
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1920 → 2002
$900
$100 in 2002 → 1920
$11.12
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2002
Between 1920 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 799.5%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2002: the 1920 dollar
lost 88.9% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 2002 at the same ratio, 9.00: $1,000 becomes
$8,995, and $10,000 becomes $89,950.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2002
$1.00
$9.00
$5.00
$44.98
$10.00
$89.95
$20.00
$180
$50.00
$450
$100
$900
$500
$4,498
$1,000
$8,995
$5,000
$44,975
$10,000
$89,950
$100,000
$899,500
$1,000,000
$8,995,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2002
Between 1920 and 2002, food rose the most, up 739.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 187.7%, against 799.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$900
Food
2.63%
$839
Apparel
1.30%
$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 2002
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 1920–2002 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$861
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$900
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $148 by
1960, on its way to $900 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $900; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2002: $100 is worth $900 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2002/