$100 in 1923 is worth $157 in 1954,
because prices increased 57.3% over that period, an average of
1.47% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$157
in 1954
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
57.3%
Average inflation rate
1.47% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$157
Price difference ($100 base)
$57.31
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1954
26.9
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1954
0.75%
$100 in 1923 → 1954
$157
$100 in 1954 → 1923
$63.57
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1954
Between 1923 and 1954, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 26.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 57.3%, which works out to an average of
1.47% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1954: the 1923 dollar
lost 36.4% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1954 at the same ratio, 1.57: $1,000 becomes
$1,573, and $10,000 becomes $15,731.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1954
$1.00
$1.57
$5.00
$7.87
$10.00
$15.73
$20.00
$31.46
$50.00
$78.65
$100
$157
$500
$787
$1,000
$1,573
$5,000
$7,865
$10,000
$15,731
$100,000
$157,310
$1,000,000
$1,573,099
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1954
Between 1923 and 1954, food rose the most, up 83.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 59.0%, against 57.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1954, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.47%
$157
Food
1.97%
$183
Apparel
1.51%
$159
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 1954
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 1923–1954 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
1950–1954
2.79%
11.6%
$157
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $81.29 by
1939, on its way to $157 in 1954; 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 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1954
In 1954, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $157; the year's average CPI of 26.9 is the level
behind every 1954 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1954, extending 1953’s 0.8%
slowdown even as the economy tipped into recession, an early example of
prices continuing to rise through a downturn rather than falling with it.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates that recession from July
1953 to May 1954, as defense spending fell after the Korean War armistice
and the tighter monetary policy of the year before worked its way through
the economy. The Supreme Court reshaped a different part of American life
that spring: its unanimous May 17 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education
held that “separate but equal” public schools violated the Constitution,
overturning the legal basis for segregated education. Washington also
closed the book on a different fight that year. Following the televised
Army-McCarthy hearings that spring, the Senate voted 67 to 22 on December
2 to condemn Senator Joseph McCarthy’s conduct, ending his dominance of
American politics after four years of anti-communist investigations.
Consumer prices finished 1954 171.7% above their 1913
level, essentially flat with 1953 as the mild recession
held the cost of living in check. First-class postage held at 3 cents,
and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1954: $100 is worth $157 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1954/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1954. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1954/