Buying power of $100 in 1920

This chart shows a calculation of buying power equivalence for $100 in 1920 (price index tracking began in 1914).

For example, if you started with $100, you would need to end with $768.75 in order to "adjust" for inflation (sometimes refered to as "beating inflation").

When $100 is equivalent to $768.75 over time, that means that the "real value" of a single Canadian dollar decreases over time. In other words, a dollar will pay for fewer items at the store.

This effect explains how inflation erodes the value of a dollar over time. By calculating the value in 1920 dollars, the chart below shows how $100 buys less over the past 73 years.

According to Statistics Canada, each of these CAD amounts below is equal in terms of what it could buy at the time:

How to Calculate Inflation Rate for $100, 1920 to 1993

This inflation calculator uses the following inflation rate formula:

Then plug in historical CPI values. The Canadian CPI was 11.2 in the year 1920 and 86.1 in 1993:

$100 in 1920 has the same "purchasing power" or "buying power" as $768.75 in 1993.

To get the total inflation rate for the 73 years between 1920 and 1993, we use the following formula:

Plugging in the values to this equation, we get:

News headlines from 1920

Politics and news often influence economic performance. Here's what was happening at the time:

• The League of Nations' first assembly takes place in Paris.
• The British Parliament passes the Fourth Home Rule Act, dividing Ireland into two parts and leading to a yearlong Anglo-Irish war in the southern counties.
• The Catholic Church canonizes Joan of Arc, formally making her a saint.
• The 19th Amendment to the constitution is ratified, granting U.S. woman suffrage for the first time.

Data Source & Citation

Raw data for these calculations comes from the government of Canada's annual Consumer Price Index (CPI), established in 1914 and computed by Statistics Canada (StatCan).

» Read more about inflation and investment.