$100 in 1923 is worth $1,275 in 2010,
because prices increased 1175.2% over that period, an average of
2.97% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,275
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1175.2%
Average inflation rate
2.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,275
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,175
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1923 → 2010
$1,275
$100 in 2010 → 1923
$7.84
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2010
Between 1923 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1175.2%, which works out to an average of
2.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2010: the 1923 dollar
lost 92.2% of its purchasing power over
these 87 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 2010 at the same ratio, 12.75: $1,000 becomes
$12,752, and $10,000 becomes $127,518.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2010
$1.00
$12.75
$5.00
$63.76
$10.00
$128
$20.00
$255
$50.00
$638
$100
$1,275
$500
$6,376
$1,000
$12,752
$5,000
$63,759
$10,000
$127,518
$100,000
$1,275,181
$1,000,000
$12,751,813
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2010
Between 1923 and 2010, food rose the most, up 1326.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 341.0%, against 1175.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.97%
$1,275
Food
3.10%
$1,426
Apparel
1.72%
$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 2010
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 1923–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,275
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $204 by
1968, on its way to $1,275 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,275; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,275 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2010/