$100 in 1923 is worth $260 in 1973,
because prices increased 159.6% over that period, an average of
1.93% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$260
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
159.6%
Average inflation rate
1.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$260
Price difference ($100 base)
$160
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1923 → 1973
$260
$100 in 1973 → 1923
$38.51
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1973
Between 1923 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 159.6%, which works out to an average of
1.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1973: the 1923 dollar
lost 61.5% of its purchasing power over
these 50 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.60: $1,000 becomes
$2,596, and $10,000 becomes $25,965.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.60
$5.00
$12.98
$10.00
$25.96
$20.00
$51.93
$50.00
$130
$100
$260
$500
$1,298
$1,000
$2,596
$5,000
$12,982
$10,000
$25,965
$100,000
$259,649
$1,000,000
$2,596,491
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1973
Between 1923 and 1973, food rose the most, up 213.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 138.4%, against 159.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.93%
$260
Food
2.31%
$313
Apparel
1.75%
$238
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 1973
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 1923–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$260
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $130 by
1947, on its way to $260 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $260; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1973: $100 is worth $260 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1973/