$100 in 1920 is worth $1,610 in 2025,
because prices increased 1509.7% over that period, an average of
2.68% a year.
$100 in 1920 has
the same buying power as
$1,610
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1509.7%
Average inflation rate
2.68% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,610
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,510
CPI in 1920
20
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1920
15.61%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1920 → 2025
$1,610
$100 in 2025 → 1920
$6.21
What happened to prices between 1920 and 2025
Between 1920 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 20 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1509.7%, which works out to an average of
2.68% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1920 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2025: the 1920 dollar
lost 93.8% of its purchasing power over
these 105 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 2025 at the same ratio, 16.10: $1,000 becomes
$16,097, and $10,000 becomes $160,972.
Amount in 1920
Value in 2025
$1.00
$16.10
$5.00
$80.49
$10.00
$161
$20.00
$322
$50.00
$805
$100
$1,610
$500
$8,049
$1,000
$16,097
$5,000
$80,486
$10,000
$160,972
$100,000
$1,609,715
$1,000,000
$16,097,150
Inflation by spending category, 1920–2025
Between 1920 and 2025, food rose the most, up 1516.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 204.7%, against 1509.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1920
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1920 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.68%
$1,610
Food
2.69%
$1,617
Apparel
1.07%
$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 2025
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 1920–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$1,610
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1920
$100 from 1920 had already become $194 by
1970, on its way to $1,610 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1920 had the buying
power of $1,610; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1920 to 2025: $100 is worth $1,610 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1920 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1920-to-2025/