$100 in 1923 is worth $953 in 1998,
because prices increased 853.2% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$953
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
853.2%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$953
Price difference ($100 base)
$853
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1923 → 1998
$953
$100 in 1998 → 1923
$10.49
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1998
Between 1923 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 853.2%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1998: the 1923 dollar
lost 89.5% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 1998 at the same ratio, 9.53: $1,000 becomes
$9,532, and $10,000 becomes $95,322.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1998
$1.00
$9.53
$5.00
$47.66
$10.00
$95.32
$20.00
$191
$50.00
$477
$100
$953
$500
$4,766
$1,000
$9,532
$5,000
$47,661
$10,000
$95,322
$100,000
$953,216
$1,000,000
$9,532,164
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1998
Between 1923 and 1998, food rose the most, up 943.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 390.8%, against 853.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$953
Food
3.18%
$1,044
Apparel
2.14%
$491
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 1998
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 1923–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$953
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $169 by
1958, on its way to $953 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $953; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1998: $100 is worth $953 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1998/