$100 in 1920 is worth $1,090 in 2010,
because prices increased 990.3% over that period, an average of
2.69% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,090
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
990.3%
Average inflation rate
2.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,090
Price difference ($100 base)
$990
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1920 → 2010
$1,090
$100 in 2010 → 1920
$9.17
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2010
Between 1920 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 990.3%, which works out to an average of
2.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2010: the 1920 dollar
lost 90.8% of its purchasing power over
these 90 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 2010 at the same ratio, 10.90: $1,000 becomes
$10,903, and $10,000 becomes $109,028.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2010
$1.00
$10.90
$5.00
$54.51
$10.00
$109
$20.00
$218
$50.00
$545
$100
$1,090
$500
$5,451
$1,000
$10,903
$5,000
$54,514
$10,000
$109,028
$100,000
$1,090,280
$1,000,000
$10,902,800
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2010
Between 1920 and 2010, food rose the most, up 945.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 177.3%, against 990.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.69%
$1,090
Food
2.64%
$1,046
Apparel
1.14%
$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 2010
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 1920–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,090
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $158 by
1965, on its way to $1,090 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,090; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,090 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2010/