$100 in 1923 is worth $891 in 1995,
because prices increased 791.2% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$891
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
791.2%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$891
Price difference ($100 base)
$791
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1923 → 1995
$891
$100 in 1995 → 1923
$11.22
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1995
Between 1923 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 791.2%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1995: the 1923 dollar
lost 88.8% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 1995 at the same ratio, 8.91: $1,000 becomes
$8,912, and $10,000 becomes $89,123.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1995
$1.00
$8.91
$5.00
$44.56
$10.00
$89.12
$20.00
$178
$50.00
$446
$100
$891
$500
$4,456
$1,000
$8,912
$5,000
$44,561
$10,000
$89,123
$100,000
$891,228
$1,000,000
$8,912,281
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1995
Between 1923 and 1995, food rose the most, up 863.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 387.1%, against 791.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$891
Food
3.20%
$964
Apparel
2.22%
$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 1995
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 1923–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$891
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $169 by
1958, on its way to $891 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $891; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1995: $100 is worth $891 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1995/