$100 in 1920 is worth $1,185 in 2015,
because prices increased 1085.1% over that period, an average of
2.64% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,185
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1085.1%
Average inflation rate
2.64% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,185
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,085
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1920 → 2015
$1,185
$100 in 2015 → 1920
$8.44
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2015
Between 1920 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1085.1%, which works out to an average of
2.64% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2015: the 1920 dollar
lost 91.6% of its purchasing power over
these 95 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 2015 at the same ratio, 11.85: $1,000 becomes
$11,851, and $10,000 becomes $118,509.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2015
$1.00
$11.85
$5.00
$59.25
$10.00
$119
$20.00
$237
$50.00
$593
$100
$1,185
$500
$5,925
$1,000
$11,851
$5,000
$59,254
$10,000
$118,509
$100,000
$1,185,085
$1,000,000
$11,850,850
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2015
Between 1920 and 2015, food rose the most, up 1077.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 192.1%, against 1085.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.64%
$1,185
Food
2.63%
$1,177
Apparel
1.13%
$292
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 2015
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 1920–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,185
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $158 by
1965, on its way to $1,185 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,185; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,185 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2015/