$100 in 1923 is worth $95.32 in 1942,
because prices declined 4.7% over that period, an average of
0.25% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$95.32
in 1942
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-4.7%
Average inflation rate
-0.25% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$95.32
Price difference ($100 base)
-$4.68
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1942
16.3
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1942
10.88%
$100 in 1923 → 1942
$95.32
$100 in 1942 → 1923
$105
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1942
Between 1923 and 1942, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 16.3.
Cumulatively, prices declined 4.7%, which works out to an average of
-0.25% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$1.05 buys in 1942: the 1923 dollar
gained 4.9% in purchasing power over
these 19 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 1942 at the same ratio, 0.95: $1,000 becomes
$953, and $10,000 becomes $9,532.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1942
$1.00
$0.95
$5.00
$4.77
$10.00
$9.53
$20.00
$19.06
$50.00
$47.66
$100
$95.32
$500
$477
$1,000
$953
$5,000
$4,766
$10,000
$9,532
$100,000
$95,322
$1,000,000
$953,216
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1942
Between 1923 and 1942, food rose the most, up 0.0%, while apparel fell 1.5%, against 4.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1942, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.25%
$95.32
Food
0.00%
$100
Apparel
-0.08%
$98.52
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 1942
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.90% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1942 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1923, at end
1923–1930
-0.34%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1942
7.90%
16.4%
$95.32
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $80.12 by
1932, on its way to $95.32 in 1942; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1942, prices rose 10.9% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $95.32; the year's average CPI of 16.3 is the level
behind every 1942 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 10.9% in 1942, up from 1941’s already
rapid 5.0% and the fastest increase since 1920, as the economy’s crash
conversion to war production collided with shrinking supplies of civilian
goods. The government tried to contain it: the General Maximum Price
Regulation, effective May 18 and known as “General Max,” froze most retail
prices at their highest March level, the broadest price control Washington
had ever attempted. Rationing followed close behind. Sugar rationing began
that May and gasoline rationing went nationwide in December, the leading
edge of a system that would eventually cover meat, coffee, shoes, tires, and
dozens of other goods before the war ended. The year’s other defining
wartime measure had nothing to do with prices. Executive Order 9066, signed
February 19, authorized the military to remove more than 110,000 Japanese
Americans, most of them U.S. citizens, from the West Coast and hold them in
inland internment camps for the war’s duration, one of the era’s starkest
violations of civil liberties. Even with price controls in place, consumer
prices climbed more than 10% for the first time since 1920, leaving the CPI
64.6% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at 3
cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1942: $100 is worth $95.32 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1942/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1942. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1942/