$100 in 1923 is worth $1,711 in 2022,
because prices increased 1611.4% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,711
in 2022
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1611.4%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,711
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,611
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2022
292.655
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2022
8.00%
$100 in 1923 → 2022
$1,711
$100 in 2022 → 1923
$5.84
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2022
Between 1923 and 2022, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 292.655.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1611.4%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2022: the 1923 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 99 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 2022 at the same ratio, 17.11: $1,000 becomes
$17,114, and $10,000 becomes $171,143.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2022
$1.00
$17.11
$5.00
$85.57
$10.00
$171
$20.00
$342
$50.00
$856
$100
$1,711
$500
$8,557
$1,000
$17,114
$5,000
$85,572
$10,000
$171,143
$100,000
$1,711,433
$1,000,000
$17,114,327
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2022
Between 1923 and 2022, food rose the most, up 1883.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 368.9%, against 1611.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2022, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$1,711
Food
3.06%
$1,983
Apparel
1.57%
$469
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 2022
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 1923–2022 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,514
2020–2022
6.34%
13.1%
$1,711
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $260 by
1973, on its way to $1,711 in 2022; 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: 2022
In 2022, prices rose 8.0% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,711; the year's average CPI of 292.655 is the level
behind every 2022 figure on this page.
2022 was the year inflation returned. Consumer prices rose 8.0% on average,
the worst since 1981, driven by pandemic-era supply chains, stimulus-fueled
demand, and an energy shock from the war in Ukraine. Gas briefly topped $5 a
gallon nationally for the first time ever, and “inflation” became the
top-ranked economic concern in nearly every poll of American households.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2022: $100 is worth $1,711 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2022/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2022. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2022/