$100 in 1923 is worth $820 in 1992,
because prices increased 720.5% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$820
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
720.5%
Average inflation rate
3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$820
Price difference ($100 base)
$720
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1923 → 1992
$820
$100 in 1992 → 1923
$12.19
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1992
Between 1923 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 720.5%, which works out to an average of
3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1992: the 1923 dollar
lost 87.8% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 1992 at the same ratio, 8.20: $1,000 becomes
$8,205, and $10,000 becomes $82,047.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1992
$1.00
$8.20
$5.00
$41.02
$10.00
$82.05
$20.00
$164
$50.00
$410
$100
$820
$500
$4,102
$1,000
$8,205
$5,000
$41,023
$10,000
$82,047
$100,000
$820,468
$1,000,000
$8,204,678
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1992
Between 1923 and 1992, food rose the most, up 795.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 386.7%, against 720.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.10%
$820
Food
3.23%
$895
Apparel
2.32%
$487
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 1992
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 1923–1992 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
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$820
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $169 by
1958, on its way to $820 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $820; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1992: $100 is worth $820 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1992/