$100 in 1923 is worth $1,495 in 2019,
because prices increased 1395.1% over that period, an average of
2.86% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,495
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1395.1%
Average inflation rate
2.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,495
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,395
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1923 → 2019
$1,495
$100 in 2019 → 1923
$6.69
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2019
Between 1923 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1395.1%, which works out to an average of
2.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2019: the 1923 dollar
lost 93.3% of its purchasing power over
these 96 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 2019 at the same ratio, 14.95: $1,000 becomes
$14,951, and $10,000 becomes $149,507.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2019
$1.00
$14.95
$5.00
$74.75
$10.00
$150
$20.00
$299
$50.00
$748
$100
$1,495
$500
$7,475
$1,000
$14,951
$5,000
$74,754
$10,000
$149,507
$100,000
$1,495,070
$1,000,000
$14,950,702
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2019
Between 1923 and 2019, food rose the most, up 1577.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 357.8%, against 1395.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.86%
$1,495
Food
2.98%
$1,677
Apparel
1.60%
$458
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 2019
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 1923–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,495
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $260 by
1973, on its way to $1,495 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,495; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,495 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2019/