$1,000 in 1920 is worth $17,303 today (CPI)
$17,303
Updated June 1, 2026 · BLS / FRED (CPIAUCSL)
$1,000 in 1920 is worth $17,303.21 in today's dollars, adjusted by the official U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), which rose 1,630% since then. BLS/FRED data through June 1, 2026.
A thousand dollars in 1920 was a sizable sum, comparable to a year's pay for many workers, held as prices sat near a postwar high. Because the early 1920s then saw years of falling prices, this larger amount started from an inflated baseline before the broad climb that followed. The adjustment reveals only the long erosion of buying power at that scale — how many of today's dollars it takes to match, not what it might have earned.
Run your own experiment
Year by year
| Year | Equivalent value |
|---|---|
| 1920 | $1,005 |
| 1930 | $834 |
| 1940 | $731 |
| 1950 | $1,295 |
| 1960 | $1,544 |
| 1970 | $2,062 |
| 1980 | $4,472 |
| 1990 | $6,933 |
| 2000 | $9,016 |
| 2010 | $11,356 |
| 2020 | $13,496 |
| 2026 | $17,303 |
Selected milestones; the math uses every month of the official series.
Put differently: what cost $1,000 in 1920 costs $17,303.21 today. A dollar from 1920 buys only 6% of what it bought then — prices multiplied 17.3× over the period.
The 1920s opened with a sharp postwar deflation — one of the few periods in the series when prices actually fell for years.
Frequently asked questions
How is the value of $1,000 from 1920 calculated?
We divide today's CPI-U index level by the 1920 level, as published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The cumulative change is 1,630% — a factor of 17.30.
Which inflation measure is used?
CPI-U, the broadest official U.S. consumer price index (all urban consumers), the same series used by the BLS inflation calculator.
Does this include investment returns?
No. This is pure purchasing-power adjustment. Money invested in stocks or bonds over the same period would have grown far more than inflation.
Keep exploring
Descriptive, educational content computed from official public data. Not investment advice. Past performance does not guarantee future results.