$100 in 1923 is worth $918 in 1996,
because prices increased 817.5% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$918
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
817.5%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$918
Price difference ($100 base)
$818
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1923 → 1996
$918
$100 in 1996 → 1923
$10.90
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1996
Between 1923 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 817.5%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1996: the 1923 dollar
lost 89.1% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 1996 at the same ratio, 9.18: $1,000 becomes
$9,175, and $10,000 becomes $91,754.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1996
$1.00
$9.18
$5.00
$45.88
$10.00
$91.75
$20.00
$184
$50.00
$459
$100
$918
$500
$4,588
$1,000
$9,175
$5,000
$45,877
$10,000
$91,754
$100,000
$917,544
$1,000,000
$9,175,439
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1996
Between 1923 and 1996, food rose the most, up 895.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 386.0%, against 817.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$918
Food
3.20%
$995
Apparel
2.19%
$486
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 1996
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 1923–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$918
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $169 by
1958, on its way to $918 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $918; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1996: $100 is worth $918 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1996/