$100 in 1922 is worth $1,541 in 2020,
because prices increased 1440.5% over that period, an average of
2.83% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$1,541
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1440.5%
Average inflation rate
2.83% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,541
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,441
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1922 → 2020
$1,541
$100 in 2020 → 1922
$6.49
What happened to prices between 1922 and 2020
Between 1922 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1440.5%, which works out to an average of
2.83% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2020: the 1922 dollar
lost 93.5% of its purchasing power over
these 98 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 2020 at the same ratio, 15.41: $1,000 becomes
$15,405, and $10,000 becomes $154,054.
Amount in 1922
Value in 2020
$1.00
$15.41
$5.00
$77.03
$10.00
$154
$20.00
$308
$50.00
$770
$100
$1,541
$500
$7,703
$1,000
$15,405
$5,000
$77,027
$10,000
$154,054
$100,000
$1,540,542
$1,000,000
$15,405,417
Inflation by spending category, 1922–2020
Between 1922 and 2020, food rose the most, up 1693.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 337.3%, against 1440.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.83%
$1,541
Food
2.99%
$1,793
Apparel
1.52%
$437
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 2020
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–2020 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$231
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$490
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$778
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,025
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,298
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,541
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $249 by
1972, on its way to $1,541 in 2020; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $1,541; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 2020: $100 is worth $1,541 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-2020/