$100 in 1923 is worth $84.21 in 1937,
because prices declined 15.8% over that period, an average of
1.22% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$84.21
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-15.8%
Average inflation rate
-1.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$84.21
Price difference ($100 base)
-$15.79
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1923 → 1937
$84.21
$100 in 1937 → 1923
$119
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1937
Between 1923 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 15.8%, which works out to an average of
-1.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$1.19 buys in 1937: the 1923 dollar
gained 18.8% in purchasing power over
these 14 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 1937 at the same ratio, 0.84: $1,000 becomes
$842, and $10,000 becomes $8,421.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1937
$1.00
$0.84
$5.00
$4.21
$10.00
$8.42
$20.00
$16.84
$50.00
$42.11
$100
$84.21
$500
$421
$1,000
$842
$5,000
$4,211
$10,000
$8,421
$100,000
$84,211
$1,000,000
$842,105
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1937
Every category fell between 1923 and 1937: apparel the most, down 18.8%, and food the least, down 14.9%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.22%
$84.21
Food
-1.15%
$85.06
Apparel
-1.48%
$81.18
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 1937
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.3% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1937 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1937
-2.09%
-13.8%
$84.21
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $97.66 by
1930, on its way to $84.21 in 1937; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1937, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $84.21; the year's average CPI of 14.4 is the level
behind every 1937 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1937: $100 is worth $84.21 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1937/