$100 in 1920 is worth $945 in 2004,
because prices increased 844.5% over that period, an average of
2.71% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$945
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
844.5%
Average inflation rate
2.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$945
Price difference ($100 base)
$845
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1920 → 2004
$945
$100 in 2004 → 1920
$10.59
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2004
Between 1920 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 844.5%, which works out to an average of
2.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.11 buys in 2004: the 1920 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2004 at the same ratio, 9.45: $1,000 becomes
$9,445, and $10,000 becomes $94,450.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2004
$1.00
$9.45
$5.00
$47.23
$10.00
$94.45
$20.00
$189
$50.00
$472
$100
$945
$500
$4,723
$1,000
$9,445
$5,000
$47,225
$10,000
$94,450
$100,000
$944,500
$1,000,000
$9,445,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2004
Between 1920 and 2004, food rose the most, up 786.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 179.4%, against 844.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.71%
$945
Food
2.63%
$887
Apparel
1.23%
$279
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 2004
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 1920–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$945
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $148 by
1960, on its way to $945 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $945; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2004: $100 is worth $945 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2004/