$100 in 1920 is worth $1,148 in 2012,
because prices increased 1048.0% over that period, an average of
2.69% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,148
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1048.0%
Average inflation rate
2.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,148
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,048
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1920 → 2012
$1,148
$100 in 2012 → 1920
$8.71
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2012
Between 1920 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1048.0%, which works out to an average of
2.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2012: the 1920 dollar
lost 91.3% of its purchasing power over
these 92 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 2012 at the same ratio, 11.48: $1,000 becomes
$11,480, and $10,000 becomes $114,797.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2012
$1.00
$11.48
$5.00
$57.40
$10.00
$115
$20.00
$230
$50.00
$574
$100
$1,148
$500
$5,740
$1,000
$11,480
$5,000
$57,399
$10,000
$114,797
$100,000
$1,147,970
$1,000,000
$11,479,700
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2012
Between 1920 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1013.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 193.0%, against 1048.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.69%
$1,148
Food
2.65%
$1,113
Apparel
1.18%
$293
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 2012
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 1920–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,148
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $158 by
1965, on its way to $1,148 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,148; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,148 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2012/