$100 in 1920 is worth $1,568 in 2024,
because prices increased 1468.4% over that period, an average of
2.68% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,568
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1468.4%
Average inflation rate
2.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,568
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,468
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1920 → 2024
$1,568
$100 in 2024 → 1920
$6.38
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2024
Between 1920 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1468.4%, which works out to an average of
2.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2024: the 1920 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 104 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 2024 at the same ratio, 15.68: $1,000 becomes
$15,684, and $10,000 becomes $156,845.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2024
$1.00
$15.68
$5.00
$78.42
$10.00
$157
$20.00
$314
$50.00
$784
$100
$1,568
$500
$7,842
$1,000
$15,684
$5,000
$78,422
$10,000
$156,845
$100,000
$1,568,445
$1,000,000
$15,684,450
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2024
Between 1920 and 2024, food rose the most, up 1472.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 205.1%, against 1468.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.68%
$1,568
Food
2.68%
$1,573
Apparel
1.08%
$305
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 2024
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 1920–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$1,568
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $194 by
1970, on its way to $1,568 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,568; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2024: $100 is worth $1,568 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2024/