$100 in 1923 is worth $974 in 1999,
because prices increased 874.3% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$974
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
874.3%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$974
Price difference ($100 base)
$874
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1923 → 1999
$974
$100 in 1999 → 1923
$10.26
What happened to prices between 1923 and 1999
Between 1923 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 874.3%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1999: the 1923 dollar
lost 89.7% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.74: $1,000 becomes
$9,743, and $10,000 becomes $97,427.
Amount in 1923
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.74
$5.00
$48.71
$10.00
$97.43
$20.00
$195
$50.00
$487
$100
$974
$500
$4,871
$1,000
$9,743
$5,000
$48,713
$10,000
$97,427
$100,000
$974,269
$1,000,000
$9,742,690
Inflation by spending category, 1923–1999
Between 1923 and 1999, food rose the most, up 965.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 384.5%, against 874.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$974
Food
3.16%
$1,066
Apparel
2.10%
$485
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 1999
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 1923–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$974
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $179 by
1963, on its way to $974 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $974; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 1999: $100 is worth $974 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-1999/