$100 in 1928 is worth $1,514 in 2020,
because prices increased 1413.5% over that period, an average of
3.00% a year.
$100 in 1928 has
the same buying power as
$1,514
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1413.5%
Average inflation rate
3.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,514
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,414
CPI in 1928
17.1
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1928
-1.72%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1928 → 2020
$1,514
$100 in 2020 → 1928
$6.61
What happened to prices between 1928 and 2020
Between 1928 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1413.5%, which works out to an average of
3.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1928 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2020: the 1928 dollar
lost 93.4% of its purchasing power over
these 92 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1928, the second straight year of mild decline
even as the stock market climbed sharply, a widening gap between asset
prices and the cost of living that later economists pointed to as an early
warning sign. The Federal Reserve tightened policy repeatedly over the year,
raising its discount rate in an effort to slow the flood of borrowed money
pouring into stock purchases without derailing the broader economy, a
balancing act it ultimately failed to manage. Herbert Hoover won the
presidential election that November, defeating Democrat Al Smith on a
platform built around continuing the prosperity of the Coolidge years; few
voters or policymakers anticipated how quickly that prosperity would end.
First-class postage remained at 2 cents, a price that had now held for nine
straight years.
Every 1928 amount converts to 2020 at the same ratio, 15.14: $1,000 becomes
$15,135, and $10,000 becomes $151,351.
Amount in 1928
Value in 2020
$1.00
$15.14
$5.00
$75.68
$10.00
$151
$20.00
$303
$50.00
$757
$100
$1,514
$500
$7,568
$1,000
$15,135
$5,000
$75,676
$10,000
$151,351
$100,000
$1,513,515
$1,000,000
$15,135,146
Inflation by spending category, 1928–2020
Between 1928 and 2020, food rose the most, up 1539.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 372.3%, against 1413.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1928
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1928 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.00%
$1,514
Food
3.09%
$1,639
Apparel
1.70%
$472
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1928: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1928 to 2020
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 1928–2020 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1928, at end
1928–1930
-1.18%
-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
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1928
$100 from 1928 had already become $260 by
1973, on its way to $1,514 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1928 had the buying
power of $1,514; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1928 to 2020: $100 is worth $1,514 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1928 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1928-to-2020/