$100 in 1920 is worth $1,524 in 2023,
because prices increased 1423.5% over that period, an average of
2.68% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,524
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1423.5%
Average inflation rate
2.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,524
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,424
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1920 → 2023
$1,524
$100 in 2023 → 1920
$6.56
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2023
Between 1920 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1423.5%, which works out to an average of
2.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2023: the 1920 dollar
lost 93.4% of its purchasing power over
these 103 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 2023 at the same ratio, 15.24: $1,000 becomes
$15,235, and $10,000 becomes $152,351.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2023
$1.00
$15.24
$5.00
$76.18
$10.00
$152
$20.00
$305
$50.00
$762
$100
$1,524
$500
$7,618
$1,000
$15,235
$5,000
$76,176
$10,000
$152,351
$100,000
$1,523,510
$1,000,000
$15,235,100
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2023
Between 1920 and 2023, food rose the most, up 1437.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 203.0%, against 1423.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.68%
$1,524
Food
2.69%
$1,538
Apparel
1.08%
$303
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 2023
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 1920–2023 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
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,524
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $194 by
1970, on its way to $1,524 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,524; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,524 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2023/