$100 in 1923 is worth $1,179 in 2006,
because prices increased 1078.9% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,179
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1078.9%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,179
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,079
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1923 → 2006
$1,179
$100 in 2006 → 1923
$8.48
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2006
Between 1923 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1078.9%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2006: the 1923 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 83 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 2006 at the same ratio, 11.79: $1,000 becomes
$11,789, and $10,000 becomes $117,895.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2006
$1.00
$11.79
$5.00
$58.95
$10.00
$118
$20.00
$236
$50.00
$589
$100
$1,179
$500
$5,895
$1,000
$11,789
$5,000
$58,947
$10,000
$117,895
$100,000
$1,178,947
$1,000,000
$11,789,474
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2006
Between 1923 and 2006, food rose the most, up 1167.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 341.0%, against 1078.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$1,179
Food
3.11%
$1,268
Apparel
1.80%
$441
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 2006
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 1923–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$1,179
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $179 by
1963, on its way to $1,179 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,179; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2006: $100 is worth $1,179 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2006/