$100 in 1923 is worth $532 in 1981,
because prices increased 431.6% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$532
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
431.6%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$532
Price difference ($100 base)
$432
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1923 → 1981
$532
$100 in 1981 → 1923
$18.81
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1981
Between 1923 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 431.6%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1981: the 1923 dollar
lost 81.2% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1981 at the same ratio, 5.32: $1,000 becomes
$5,316, and $10,000 becomes $53,158.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1981
$1.00
$5.32
$5.00
$26.58
$10.00
$53.16
$20.00
$106
$50.00
$266
$100
$532
$500
$2,658
$1,000
$5,316
$5,000
$26,579
$10,000
$53,158
$100,000
$531,579
$1,000,000
$5,315,789
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1981
Between 1923 and 1981, food rose the most, up 507.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 251.7%, against 431.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$532
Food
3.16%
$608
Apparel
2.19%
$352
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1923–1981 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
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$532
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $152 by
1951, on its way to $532 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $532; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1981: $100 is worth $532 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1981/