$100 in 1920 is worth $1,355 in 2021,
because prices increased 1254.9% over that period, an average of
2.61% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,355
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1254.9%
Average inflation rate
2.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,355
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,255
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1920 → 2021
$1,355
$100 in 2021 → 1920
$7.38
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2021
Between 1920 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1254.9%, which works out to an average of
2.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2021: the 1920 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 101 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 2021 at the same ratio, 13.55: $1,000 becomes
$13,549, and $10,000 becomes $135,485.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2021
$1.00
$13.55
$5.00
$67.74
$10.00
$135
$20.00
$271
$50.00
$677
$100
$1,355
$500
$6,774
$1,000
$13,549
$5,000
$67,743
$10,000
$135,485
$100,000
$1,354,850
$1,000,000
$13,548,500
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2021
Between 1920 and 2021, food rose the most, up 1222.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 180.7%, against 1254.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.61%
$1,355
Food
2.59%
$1,323
Apparel
1.03%
$281
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 2021
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 1920–2021 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,294
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$1,355
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $194 by
1970, on its way to $1,355 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,355; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2021: $100 is worth $1,355 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2021/