$100 in 1920 is worth $920 in 2003,
because prices increased 820.0% over that period, an average of
2.71% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$920
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
820.0%
Average inflation rate
2.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$920
Price difference ($100 base)
$820
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1920 → 2003
$920
$100 in 2003 → 1920
$10.87
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2003
Between 1920 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 820.0%, which works out to an average of
2.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2003: the 1920 dollar
lost 89.1% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2003 at the same ratio, 9.20: $1,000 becomes
$9,200, and $10,000 becomes $92,000.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2003
$1.00
$9.20
$5.00
$46.00
$10.00
$92.00
$20.00
$184
$50.00
$460
$100
$920
$500
$4,600
$1,000
$9,200
$5,000
$46,000
$10,000
$92,000
$100,000
$920,000
$1,000,000
$9,200,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2003
Between 1920 and 2003, food rose the most, up 757.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 180.5%, against 820.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.71%
$920
Food
2.62%
$857
Apparel
1.25%
$281
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 2003
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 1920–2003 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
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$920
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $148 by
1960, on its way to $920 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $920; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2003: $100 is worth $920 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2003/