$100 in 1923 is worth $867 in 1994,
because prices increased 766.7% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$867
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
766.7%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$867
Price difference ($100 base)
$767
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1923 → 1994
$867
$100 in 1994 → 1923
$11.54
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1994
Between 1923 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 766.7%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1994: the 1923 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 71 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 1994 at the same ratio, 8.67: $1,000 becomes
$8,667, and $10,000 becomes $86,667.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1994
$1.00
$8.67
$5.00
$43.33
$10.00
$86.67
$20.00
$173
$50.00
$433
$100
$867
$500
$4,333
$1,000
$8,667
$5,000
$43,333
$10,000
$86,667
$100,000
$866,667
$1,000,000
$8,666,667
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1994
Between 1923 and 1994, food rose the most, up 837.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 392.3%, against 766.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$867
Food
3.20%
$937
Apparel
2.27%
$492
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 1994
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 1923–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$867
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $169 by
1958, on its way to $867 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $867; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1994: $100 is worth $867 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1994/