$100 in 1922 is worth $176 in 1960,
because prices increased 76.2% over that period, an average of
1.50% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$176
in 1960
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
76.2%
Average inflation rate
1.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$176
Price difference ($100 base)
$76.19
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1960
29.6
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1960
1.72%
$100 in 1922 → 1960
$176
$100 in 1960 → 1922
$56.76
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1960
Between 1922 and 1960, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 29.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 76.2%, which works out to an average of
1.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.57 buys in 1960: the 1922 dollar
lost 43.2% of its purchasing power over
these 38 years.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
Every 1922 amount converts to 1960 at the same ratio, 1.76: $1,000 becomes
$1,762, and $10,000 becomes $17,619.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1960
$1.00
$1.76
$5.00
$8.81
$10.00
$17.62
$20.00
$35.24
$50.00
$88.10
$100
$176
$500
$881
$1,000
$1,762
$5,000
$8,810
$10,000
$17,619
$100,000
$176,190
$1,000,000
$1,761,905
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1960
Between 1922 and 1960, food rose the most, up 101.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 69.3%, against 76.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1960, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.50%
$176
Food
1.86%
$201
Apparel
1.39%
$169
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1922: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1922 to 1960
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 1922–1960 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.33
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$143
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$176
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $83.33 by
1940, on its way to $176 in 1960; 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: 1960
In 1960, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $176; the year's average CPI of 29.6 is the level
behind every 1960 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.7% in 1960, up from 1959’s 0.7% even
as the economy slipped into recession that April, a downturn that would
prove the shortest since World War II. The year’s defining political
moment came that November, when John F. Kennedy narrowly defeated Richard
Nixon in one of the closest presidential elections in U.S. history,
decided by roughly two-tenths of a percentage point in the popular vote.
Television played a new role in the race: the first-ever televised
presidential debate that September, watched by an estimated 70 million
people, was widely seen as favoring the telegenic Kennedy. Civil rights
protest took a new form that February, when four Black freshmen at North
Carolina A&T State University sat down at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch
counter in Greensboro and refused to leave; the sit-in tactic spread to
dozens of Southern cities within weeks. Cold War tensions flared that May,
when a Soviet missile downed an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet
airspace. The pilot, Francis Gary Powers, was captured alive, embarrassing
the Eisenhower administration and collapsing a Paris summit called to ease
relations with Moscow. Consumer prices finished 1960 199.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1960: $100 is worth $176 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1960/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1960. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1960/