$100 in 1920 is worth $977 in 2005,
because prices increased 876.5% over that period, an average of
2.72% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$977
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
876.5%
Average inflation rate
2.72% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$977
Price difference ($100 base)
$877
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1920 → 2005
$977
$100 in 2005 → 1920
$10.24
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2005
Between 1920 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 876.5%, which works out to an average of
2.72% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2005: the 1920 dollar
lost 89.8% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 2005 at the same ratio, 9.77: $1,000 becomes
$9,765, and $10,000 becomes $97,650.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2005
$1.00
$9.77
$5.00
$48.83
$10.00
$97.65
$20.00
$195
$50.00
$488
$100
$977
$500
$4,883
$1,000
$9,765
$5,000
$48,825
$10,000
$97,650
$100,000
$976,500
$1,000,000
$9,765,000
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2005
Between 1920 and 2005, food rose the most, up 808.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.3%, against 876.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.72%
$977
Food
2.63%
$908
Apparel
1.21%
$277
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 2005
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 1920–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$977
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $148 by
1960, on its way to $977 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $977; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2005: $100 is worth $977 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2005/