$100 in 1923 is worth $1,883 in 2025,
because prices increased 1782.7% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1923 has
the same buying power as
$1,883
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1782.7%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,883
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,783
CPI in 1923
17.1
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1923
1.79%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1923 → 2025
$1,883
$100 in 2025 → 1923
$5.31
What happened to prices between 1923 and 2025
Between 1923 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1782.7%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1923 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2025: the 1923 dollar
lost 94.7% of its purchasing power over
these 102 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 2025 at the same ratio, 18.83: $1,000 becomes
$18,827, and $10,000 becomes $188,271.
Amount in 1923
Value in 2025
$1.00
$18.83
$5.00
$94.14
$10.00
$188
$20.00
$377
$50.00
$941
$100
$1,883
$500
$9,414
$1,000
$18,827
$5,000
$94,135
$10,000
$188,271
$100,000
$1,882,708
$1,000,000
$18,827,076
Inflation by spending category, 1923–2025
Between 1923 and 2025, food rose the most, up 2104.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 384.5%, against 1782.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1923
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1923 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$1,883
Food
3.08%
$2,205
Apparel
1.56%
$485
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 2025
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 1923–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$1,883
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1923
$100 from 1923 had already become $260 by
1973, on its way to $1,883 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1923 had the buying
power of $1,883; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1923 to 2025: $100 is worth $1,883 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1923 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1923-to-2025/