$100 in 1923 is worth $582 in 1983,
because prices increased 482.5% over that period, an average of
2.98% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$582
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
482.5%
Average inflation rate
2.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$582
Price difference ($100 base)
$482
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1923 → 1983
$582
$100 in 1983 → 1923
$17.17
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1983
Between 1923 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 482.5%, which works out to an average of
2.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1983: the 1923 dollar
lost 82.8% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1983 at the same ratio, 5.82: $1,000 becomes
$5,825, and $10,000 becomes $58,246.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1983
$1.00
$5.82
$5.00
$29.12
$10.00
$58.25
$20.00
$116
$50.00
$291
$100
$582
$500
$2,912
$1,000
$5,825
$5,000
$29,123
$10,000
$58,246
$100,000
$582,456
$1,000,000
$5,824,561
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1983
Between 1923 and 1983, food rose the most, up 545.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 269.7%, against 482.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.98%
$582
Food
3.16%
$645
Apparel
2.20%
$370
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 1983
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 1923–1983 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
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$582
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $156 by
1953, on its way to $582 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $582; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1983: $100 is worth $582 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1983/