$100 in 1921 is worth $187 in 1967,
because prices increased 86.6% over that period, an average of
1.37% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$187
in 1967
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
86.6%
Average inflation rate
1.37% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$187
Price difference ($100 base)
$86.59
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1967
33.4
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1967
3.09%
$100 in 1921 → 1967
$187
$100 in 1967 → 1921
$53.59
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1967
Between 1921 and 1967, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 33.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 86.6%, which works out to an average of
1.37% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.54 buys in 1967: the 1921 dollar
lost 46.4% of its purchasing power over
these 46 years.
Consumer prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the mirror image of the wartime
inflation that had more than doubled the cost of living between
1913 and 1920. The Depression of 1920-21, one
of the sharpest contractions in U.S. history, bottomed out that July
according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, even though it had
lasted barely eighteen months. Unemployment climbed toward one worker in ten
as businesses cut production and prices to work through wartime inventories,
but the same collapse in prices also meant the recovery, once it started,
had room to run without reigniting inflation. Warren Harding took office
March 4, promising a return to “normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic,
labor unrest, and rapid price swings; his administration moved quickly to
cut top income tax rates and federal spending. Congress also acted on
immigration that year: the Emergency Quota Act, signed May 19, capped annual
arrivals from each country at 3% of that nationality’s population in the
1910 census, the first time the United States had set a numerical ceiling on
immigration. The law favored northern and western Europe and cut total
immigration by more than half compared with prewar levels; Congress
tightened the formula again in 1924. First-class postage held at 2 cents,
unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1921 amount converts to 1967 at the same ratio, 1.87: $1,000 becomes
$1,866, and $10,000 becomes $18,659.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1967
$1.00
$1.87
$5.00
$9.33
$10.00
$18.66
$20.00
$37.32
$50.00
$93.30
$100
$187
$500
$933
$1,000
$1,866
$5,000
$9,330
$10,000
$18,659
$100,000
$186,592
$1,000,000
$1,865,922
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1967
Between 1921 and 1967, food rose the most, up 114.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 53.6%, against 86.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1967, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.37%
$187
Food
1.67%
$214
Apparel
0.94%
$154
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1921: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1921 to 1967
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1967 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$78.21
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$135
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$165
1960–1967
1.74%
12.8%
$187
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $96.65 by
1943, on its way to $187 in 1967; 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 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1967
In 1967, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $187; the year's average CPI of 33.4 is the level
behind every 1967 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1967, up from 1966’s 2.9% as
Vietnam War spending kept climbing alongside expanding Great Society
programs, a combination of rising military and domestic outlays that
economists later blamed for entrenching inflation through the rest of the
decade. The minimum wage rose that February 1, to $1.40 an hour, the
first step of a phased increase Congress had set the year before. Urban
unrest reached a peak that July, when days of rioting left 26 dead in
Newark and 43 dead in Detroit, the deadliest of that summer’s roughly 160
disturbances; Johnson responded by forming the Kerner Commission to study
the causes of the unrest. The Supreme Court gained its first Black
justice that year too: the Senate confirmed Thurgood Marshall on August
30, and he was sworn in that October after serving as U.S. Solicitor
General and, before that, as the lead attorney in Brown v. Board of
Education. Consumer prices finished 1967 237.4% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1967: $100 is worth $187 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1967/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1967. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1967/