$100 in 1923 is worth $1,433 in 2017,
because prices increased 1333.5% over that period, an average of
2.87% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,433
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1333.5%
Average inflation rate
2.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,433
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,333
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1923 → 2017
$1,433
$100 in 2017 → 1923
$6.98
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2017
Between 1923 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1333.5%, which works out to an average of
2.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2017: the 1923 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 94 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 2017 at the same ratio, 14.33: $1,000 becomes
$14,335, and $10,000 becomes $143,345.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2017
$1.00
$14.33
$5.00
$71.67
$10.00
$143
$20.00
$287
$50.00
$717
$100
$1,433
$500
$7,167
$1,000
$14,335
$5,000
$71,673
$10,000
$143,345
$100,000
$1,433,450
$1,000,000
$14,334,503
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2017
Between 1923 and 2017, food rose the most, up 1523.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 363.5%, against 1333.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.87%
$1,433
Food
3.01%
$1,624
Apparel
1.64%
$464
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 2017
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 1923–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,433
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $204 by
1968, on its way to $1,433 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,433; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,433 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2017/