$100 in 1923 is worth $315 in 1975,
because prices increased 214.6% over that period, an average of
2.23% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$315
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
214.6%
Average inflation rate
2.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$315
Price difference ($100 base)
$215
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1923 → 1975
$315
$100 in 1975 → 1923
$31.78
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1975
Between 1923 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 214.6%, which works out to an average of
2.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.32 buys in 1975: the 1923 dollar
lost 68.2% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.15: $1,000 becomes
$3,146, and $10,000 becomes $31,462.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.15
$5.00
$15.73
$10.00
$31.46
$20.00
$62.92
$50.00
$157
$100
$315
$500
$1,573
$1,000
$3,146
$5,000
$15,731
$10,000
$31,462
$100,000
$314,620
$1,000,000
$3,146,199
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1975
Between 1923 and 1975, food rose the most, up 288.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 167.5%, against 214.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.23%
$315
Food
2.64%
$388
Apparel
1.91%
$268
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$315
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $139 by
1949, on its way to $315 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $315; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1975: $100 is worth $315 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1975/