$100 in 1923 is worth $1,036 in 2001,
because prices increased 935.7% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,036
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
935.7%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,036
Price difference ($100 base)
$936
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1923 → 2001
$1,036
$100 in 2001 → 1923
$9.66
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2001
Between 1923 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 935.7%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2001: the 1923 dollar
lost 90.3% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2001 at the same ratio, 10.36: $1,000 becomes
$10,357, and $10,000 becomes $103,567.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2001
$1.00
$10.36
$5.00
$51.78
$10.00
$104
$20.00
$207
$50.00
$518
$100
$1,036
$500
$5,178
$1,000
$10,357
$5,000
$51,784
$10,000
$103,567
$100,000
$1,035,673
$1,000,000
$10,356,725
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2001
Between 1923 and 2001, food rose the most, up 1024.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 369.7%, against 935.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$1,036
Food
3.15%
$1,124
Apparel
2.00%
$470
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 2001
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 1923–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$1,036
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $179 by
1963, on its way to $1,036 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,036; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2001: $100 is worth $1,036 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2001/