$100 in 1923 is worth $1,782 in 2023,
because prices increased 1681.9% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,782
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1681.9%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,782
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,682
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1923 → 2023
$1,782
$100 in 2023 → 1923
$5.61
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2023
Between 1923 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1681.9%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2023: the 1923 dollar
lost 94.4% of its purchasing power over
these 100 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 2023 at the same ratio, 17.82: $1,000 becomes
$17,819, and $10,000 becomes $178,188.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2023
$1.00
$17.82
$5.00
$89.09
$10.00
$178
$20.00
$356
$50.00
$891
$100
$1,782
$500
$8,909
$1,000
$17,819
$5,000
$89,094
$10,000
$178,188
$100,000
$1,781,883
$1,000,000
$17,818,830
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2023
Between 1923 and 2023, food rose the most, up 1997.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 381.8%, against 1681.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$1,782
Food
3.09%
$2,097
Apparel
1.58%
$482
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 2023
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 1923–2023 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
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,782
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $260 by
1973, on its way to $1,782 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,782; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,782 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2023/