$100 in 1923 is worth $80.12 in 1932,
because prices declined 19.9% over that period, an average of
2.43% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$80.12
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-19.9%
Average inflation rate
-2.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$80.12
Price difference ($100 base)
-$19.88
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1923 → 1932
$80.12
$100 in 1932 → 1923
$125
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1932
Between 1923 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 19.9%, which works out to an average of
-2.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$1.25 buys in 1932: the 1923 dollar
gained 24.8% in purchasing power over
these 9 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.8% in 1923, the first increase since 1920 and a sign
the postwar deflation had run its course; the economy settled into the
steadier growth that defined much of the rest of the decade. The year’s
biggest shock was political rather than economic: Warren Harding died August
2 in San Francisco while returning from a trip to Alaska, and Vice President
Calvin Coolidge was sworn in the next day at his family’s farmhouse in
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, administered the oath of office by his own father,
a notary public, by lamplight. Coolidge would go on to preside over the low,
stable inflation of the “Roaring Twenties.” The contrast with Germany that
year was stark. The Weimar Republic’s currency collapse reached its peak in
November 1923, with prices doubling every few days and a loaf of bread
costing billions of marks; Germany introduced a new currency, the
Rentenmark, that month to halt the spiral. U.S. consumer prices, by
comparison, had moved in single digits or held flat every year since 1921, a
gap that shaped how American economists would later think about what made
the postwar inflation of Europe so different from the mild swings at home.
First-class postage stayed at 2 cents.
Every 1923 amount converts to 1932 at the same ratio, 0.80: $1,000 becomes
$801, and $10,000 becomes $8,012.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1932
$1.00
$0.80
$5.00
$4.01
$10.00
$8.01
$20.00
$16.02
$50.00
$40.06
$100
$80.12
$500
$401
$1,000
$801
$5,000
$4,006
$10,000
$8,012
$100,000
$80,117
$1,000,000
$801,170
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1932
Every category fell between 1923 and 1932: food the most, down 30.5%, and apparel the least, down 28.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.43%
$80.12
Apparel
-3.59%
$71.96
Food
-3.97%
$69.48
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1923: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1923 to 1932
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.3% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (9.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1932 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1932
-9.43%
-18.0%
$80.12
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $102 by
1927, on its way to $80.12 in 1932; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.3% in 1925, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $80.12; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1932: $100 is worth $80.12 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1932/