$100 in 1923 is worth $237 in 1971,
because prices increased 136.8% over that period, an average of
1.81% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$237
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.8%
Average inflation rate
1.81% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$237
Price difference ($100 base)
$137
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1923 → 1971
$237
$100 in 1971 → 1923
$42.22
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1971
Between 1923 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.8%, which works out to an average of
1.81% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1971: the 1923 dollar
lost 57.8% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.37: $1,000 becomes
$2,368, and $10,000 becomes $23,684.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.37
$5.00
$11.84
$10.00
$23.68
$20.00
$47.37
$50.00
$118
$100
$237
$500
$1,184
$1,000
$2,368
$5,000
$11,842
$10,000
$23,684
$100,000
$236,842
$1,000,000
$2,368,421
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1971
Between 1923 and 1971, food rose the most, up 162.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 125.5%, against 136.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.81%
$237
Food
2.03%
$262
Apparel
1.71%
$225
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 1971
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 1923–1971 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$227
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$237
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $130 by
1947, on its way to $237 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $237; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1971: $100 is worth $237 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1971/