$100 in 1923 is worth $1,343 in 2012,
because prices increased 1242.7% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,343
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1242.7%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,343
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,243
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1923 → 2012
$1,343
$100 in 2012 → 1923
$7.45
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2012
Between 1923 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1242.7%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2012: the 1923 dollar
lost 92.6% of its purchasing power over
these 89 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 2012 at the same ratio, 13.43: $1,000 becomes
$13,427, and $10,000 becomes $134,265.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2012
$1.00
$13.43
$5.00
$67.13
$10.00
$134
$20.00
$269
$50.00
$671
$100
$1,343
$500
$6,713
$1,000
$13,427
$5,000
$67,133
$10,000
$134,265
$100,000
$1,342,655
$1,000,000
$13,426,550
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2012
Between 1923 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1418.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 365.9%, against 1242.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$1,343
Food
3.10%
$1,518
Apparel
1.74%
$466
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 2012
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 1923–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,343
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $204 by
1968, on its way to $1,343 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,343; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,343 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2012/