$100 in 1921 is worth $194 in 1968,
because prices increased 94.4% over that period, an average of
1.42% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$194
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
94.4%
Average inflation rate
1.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$194
Price difference ($100 base)
$94.41
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1921 → 1968
$194
$100 in 1968 → 1921
$51.44
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1968
Between 1921 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 94.4%, which works out to an average of
1.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.51 buys in 1968: the 1921 dollar
lost 48.6% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1968 at the same ratio, 1.94: $1,000 becomes
$1,944, and $10,000 becomes $19,441.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.94
$5.00
$9.72
$10.00
$19.44
$20.00
$38.88
$50.00
$97.21
$100
$194
$500
$972
$1,000
$1,944
$5,000
$9,721
$10,000
$19,441
$100,000
$194,413
$1,000,000
$1,944,134
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1968
Between 1921 and 1968, food rose the most, up 122.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.7%, against 94.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.42%
$194
Food
1.71%
$222
Apparel
1.03%
$162
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 1968
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 1921–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$194
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $101 by
1945, on its way to $194 in 1968; 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: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $194; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1968: $100 is worth $194 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1968/