$100 in 1923 is worth $141 in 1950,
because prices increased 40.9% over that period, an average of
1.28% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$141
in 1950
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
40.9%
Average inflation rate
1.28% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$141
Price difference ($100 base)
$40.94
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1950
24.1
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1950
1.26%
$100 in 1923 → 1950
$141
$100 in 1950 → 1923
$70.95
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1950
Between 1923 and 1950, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 40.9%, which works out to an average of
1.28% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.71 buys in 1950: the 1923 dollar
lost 29.0% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1950 at the same ratio, 1.41: $1,000 becomes
$1,409, and $10,000 becomes $14,094.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1950
$1.00
$1.41
$5.00
$7.05
$10.00
$14.09
$20.00
$28.19
$50.00
$70.47
$100
$141
$500
$705
$1,000
$1,409
$5,000
$7,047
$10,000
$14,094
$100,000
$140,936
$1,000,000
$1,409,357
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1950
Between 1923 and 1950, food rose the most, up 64.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 48.7%, against 40.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1950, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.28%
$141
Food
1.87%
$165
Apparel
1.48%
$149
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 1950
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 1923–1950 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $81.29 by
1936, on its way to $141 in 1950; 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.
In 1950, prices rose 1.3% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $141; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1950 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.3% in 1950, up from 1949’s 1.2%
decline, a mild gain that hid a sharp turn partway through the year. The
cost of living had been roughly flat through the spring, then jumped after
North Korea invaded South Korea on June 25, setting off a wave of hoarding
and defense buying reminiscent of World War II shortages. The United
States entered the war within days under a United Nations mandate;
American and South Korean forces were pushed back to the Pusan Perimeter
that summer before a landing at Inchon that September reversed the front,
and China’s entry into the war that November turned it into a longer
stalemate. Congress moved to put the economy on a war footing that
September, passing the Defense Production Act, which gave the president
authority to direct industrial output toward the military and, if prices
kept climbing, to impose formal wage and price controls. Domestic policy
also expanded that year: the Social Security Amendments of 1950, signed
August 28, raised benefits across the board and extended coverage to
roughly 10 million more workers, the program’s first major expansion since
it began in 1935. Consumer prices finished 1950 143.4% above their
1913 level, matching 1948’s postwar high
after 1949’s brief decline. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at 75 cents an hour after January’s increase.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1950: $100 is worth $141 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1950/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1950. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1950/