$100 in 1923 is worth $1,468 in 2018,
because prices increased 1368.5% over that period, an average of
2.87% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,468
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1368.5%
Average inflation rate
2.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,468
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,368
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1923 → 2018
$1,468
$100 in 2018 → 1923
$6.81
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2018
Between 1923 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1368.5%, which works out to an average of
2.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2018: the 1923 dollar
lost 93.2% of its purchasing power over
these 95 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 2018 at the same ratio, 14.68: $1,000 becomes
$14,685, and $10,000 becomes $146,846.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2018
$1.00
$14.68
$5.00
$73.42
$10.00
$147
$20.00
$294
$50.00
$734
$100
$1,468
$500
$7,342
$1,000
$14,685
$5,000
$73,423
$10,000
$146,846
$100,000
$1,468,462
$1,000,000
$14,684,620
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2018
Between 1923 and 2018, food rose the most, up 1546.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 363.7%, against 1368.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.87%
$1,468
Food
2.99%
$1,646
Apparel
1.63%
$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 2018
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 1923–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,468
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $204 by
1968, on its way to $1,468 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,468; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,468 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2018/