$100 in 1923 is worth $1,007 in 2000,
because prices increased 907.0% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,007
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
907.0%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,007
Price difference ($100 base)
$907
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1923 → 2000
$1,007
$100 in 2000 → 1923
$9.93
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2000
Between 1923 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 907.0%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2000: the 1923 dollar
lost 90.1% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2000 at the same ratio, 10.07: $1,000 becomes
$10,070, and $10,000 becomes $100,702.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2000
$1.00
$10.07
$5.00
$50.35
$10.00
$101
$20.00
$201
$50.00
$504
$100
$1,007
$500
$5,035
$1,000
$10,070
$5,000
$50,351
$10,000
$100,702
$100,000
$1,007,018
$1,000,000
$10,070,175
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2000
Between 1923 and 2000, food rose the most, up 989.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 378.2%, against 907.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$1,007
Food
3.15%
$1,090
Apparel
2.05%
$478
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 2000
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 1923–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,007
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $179 by
1963, on its way to $1,007 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,007; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2000: $100 is worth $1,007 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2000/