$100 in 1923 is worth $482 in 1980,
because prices increased 381.9% over that period, an average of
2.80% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$482
in 1980
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
381.9%
Average inflation rate
2.80% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$482
Price difference ($100 base)
$382
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1980
82.4
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1980
13.50%
$100 in 1923 → 1980
$482
$100 in 1980 → 1923
$20.75
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1980
Between 1923 and 1980, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 82.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 381.9%, which works out to an average of
2.80% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.21 buys in 1980: the 1923 dollar
lost 79.2% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1980 at the same ratio, 4.82: $1,000 becomes
$4,819, and $10,000 becomes $48,187.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1980
$1.00
$4.82
$5.00
$24.09
$10.00
$48.19
$20.00
$96.37
$50.00
$241
$100
$482
$500
$2,409
$1,000
$4,819
$5,000
$24,094
$10,000
$48,187
$100,000
$481,871
$1,000,000
$4,818,713
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1980
Between 1923 and 1980, food rose the most, up 463.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 235.4%, against 381.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1980, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.80%
$482
Food
3.08%
$564
Apparel
2.15%
$335
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 1980
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1980 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$482
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $152 by
1951, on its way to $482 in 1980; 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: 1980
In 1980, prices rose 13.5% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $482; the year's average CPI of 82.4 is the level
behind every 1980 figure on this page.
1980 sat at the very peak of the Great Inflation. Prices rose 13.5% in that
single year, mortgage rates were climbing toward 16%, and the Federal Reserve
under Paul Volcker was administering the painful interest-rate medicine that
would finally break the inflationary spiral, at the cost of the deep 1981–82
recession. No single year looms larger in how Americans think about inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1980: $100 is worth $482 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1980/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1980. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1980/