$100 in 1923 is worth $796 in 1991,
because prices increased 696.5% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$796
in 1991
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
696.5%
Average inflation rate
3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$796
Price difference ($100 base)
$696
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1991
136.2
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1991
4.21%
$100 in 1923 → 1991
$796
$100 in 1991 → 1923
$12.56
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1991
Between 1923 and 1991, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 136.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 696.5%, which works out to an average of
3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1991: the 1923 dollar
lost 87.4% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1991 at the same ratio, 7.96: $1,000 becomes
$7,965, and $10,000 becomes $79,649.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1991
$1.00
$7.96
$5.00
$39.82
$10.00
$79.65
$20.00
$159
$50.00
$398
$100
$796
$500
$3,982
$1,000
$7,965
$5,000
$39,825
$10,000
$79,649
$100,000
$796,491
$1,000,000
$7,964,912
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1991
Between 1923 and 1991, food rose the most, up 785.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 374.9%, against 696.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1991, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.10%
$796
Food
3.26%
$885
Apparel
2.32%
$475
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 1991
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 1923–1991 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$764
1990–1991
4.21%
4.2%
$796
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $169 by
1958, on its way to $796 in 1991; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1991
In 1991, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $796; the year's average CPI of 136.2 is the level
behind every 1991 figure on this page.
1991 opened in recession and closed in a slow, uneven recovery. The median household earned
about $30,100 for the year, gas averaged $1.14 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $120,000.
Inflation ran at 4.2% for the year, down from 1990’s oil-driven spike, as the Gulf War ended in
February and crude oil retreated from its autumn highs. The recession itself, dated by the
National Bureau of Economic Research from July 1990 to March 1991, was technically over by
spring, but hiring stayed weak well into 1992, the stretch economists came to call the jobless
recovery. The Federal Reserve kept cutting interest rates through the year to support growth,
reversing the tightening campaign it had run through the late 1980s. In April the federal
minimum wage rose to $4.25 an hour, the second step of an increase from the $3.35 rate that had
held since 1981. The Postal Service had already raised the cost of a first-class stamp to 29
cents that February. It was the first full year of the decade without an oil shock driving
prices, even if the job market took longer to follow.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1991: $100 is worth $796 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1991/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1991. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1991/