$100 in 1920 is worth $1,077 in 2008,
because prices increased 976.5% over that period, an average of
2.74% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,077
in 2008
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
976.5%
Average inflation rate
2.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,077
Price difference ($100 base)
$977
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2008
215.303
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2008
3.84%
$100 in 1920 → 2008
$1,077
$100 in 2008 → 1920
$9.29
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2008
Between 1920 and 2008, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 215.303.
Cumulatively, prices increased 976.5%, which works out to an average of
2.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2008: the 1920 dollar
lost 90.7% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2008 at the same ratio, 10.77: $1,000 becomes
$10,765, and $10,000 becomes $107,652.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2008
$1.00
$10.77
$5.00
$53.83
$10.00
$108
$20.00
$215
$50.00
$538
$100
$1,077
$500
$5,383
$1,000
$10,765
$5,000
$53,826
$10,000
$107,652
$100,000
$1,076,515
$1,000,000
$10,765,150
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2008
Between 1920 and 2008, food rose the most, up 919.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 175.9%, against 976.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2008, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.74%
$1,077
Food
2.67%
$1,020
Apparel
1.16%
$276
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 2008
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 1920–2008 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
2000–2008
2.83%
25.0%
$1,077
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $158 by
1965, on its way to $1,077 in 2008; 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: 2008
In 2008, prices rose 3.8% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,077; the year's average CPI of 215.303 is the level
behind every 2008 figure on this page.
Inflation averaged 3.8% in 2008, but that figure hides a swing. The 12-month rate reached 5.6% in
July, when oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline passed $4 a gallon, then fell to 0.1% by December
as crude dropped near $40. For the year, gas averaged $3.27, the highest yet. The financial
system broke in the fall: Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, Congress
created the $700 billion TARP bank rescue on October 3, and the Federal Reserve cut its policy
rate to a range of 0–0.25% in December. The median household earned about $50,300, barely
above 2007, and the median new home price fell to $232,100. The minimum wage rose to $6.55 in
July, and a first-class stamp cost 42 cents. The price collapse at the end of 2008 set up the
deflation of 2009.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2008: $100 is worth $1,077 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2008/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2008. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2008/