$100 in 1914 is worth $171 in 1924,
because prices increased 71.0% over that period, an average of
5.51% a year.
$100 in 1914 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1924
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
71.0%
Average inflation rate
5.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$71.00
CPI in 1914
10
CPI in 1924
17.1
Inflation in 1914
1.01%
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
$100 in 1914 → 1924
$171
$100 in 1924 → 1914
$58.48
What happened to prices between 1914 and 1924
Between 1914 and 1924, the Consumer Price Index went from 10 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 71.0%, which works out to an average of
5.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1914 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1924: the 1914 dollar
lost 41.5% of its purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices barely moved in 1914, rising just 1.0% for the year, even as
the country’s financial plumbing was rebuilt from the ground up. The Federal
Reserve Banks, created by the Federal Reserve Act signed the previous
December, opened their doors on November 16, giving the U.S. a central bank
for the first time since the 1830s. Weeks earlier, the outbreak of war in
Europe had spooked the New York Stock Exchange into closing for more than
four months, the longest shutdown in its history, as officials worried
European investors would dump American securities for gold. Domestically, the
bigger story was labor: Henry Ford’s decision to pay factory workers $5 a
day, announced in January, roughly doubled wages on his assembly lines and
pushed other manufacturers to raise pay just to keep workers from leaving. A
first-class stamp still cost 2 cents, a price that had held since 1885 and
would keep holding for three more years, even as the war reshaping Europe
began pulling the American economy toward the sustained wartime inflation of
1917.
Every 1914 amount converts to 1924 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,710, and $10,000 becomes $17,100.
Amount in 1914
Value in 1924
$1.00
$1.71
$5.00
$8.55
$10.00
$17.10
$20.00
$34.20
$50.00
$85.50
$100
$171
$500
$855
$1,000
$1,710
$5,000
$8,550
$10,000
$17,100
$100,000
$171,000
$1,000,000
$1,710,000
Inflation by spending category, 1914–1924
Between 1914 and 1924, apparel rose the most, up 78.7%, while food rose the least, up 49.0%, against 71.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1914
spending costs in 1924, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1914 →
All items (CPI-U)
5.51%
$171
Apparel
5.98%
$179
Food
4.07%
$149
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1914: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1914 to 1924
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 12.25% a year, and fell in the 1920s (3.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1914–1924 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1914, at end
1914–1920
12.25%
100.0%
$200
1920–1924
-3.84%
-14.5%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1914
$100 from 1914 had already become $173 by
1919, on its way to $171 in 1924; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 18.0% in 1918, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1924, prices rose 0.0% and $100 from 1914 had the buying
power of $171; the year's average CPI of 17.1 is the level
behind every 1924 figure on this page.
Consumer prices held flat in 1924, the CPI’s annual average unchanged from
1923 after swinging from a sharp postwar drop to a modest rise the year
before. That stability, extending the calm that had settled in after the
deflation of 1921 and 1922, became a defining feature of the rest of the
decade. Congress tightened immigration policy further with the Immigration
Act of 1924, signed May 26, which cut the national-origins quota from 3% of
each nationality’s 1910 census population to 2% of its 1890 population,
shifting admissions further toward northern and western Europe and
effectively excluding most immigration from Asia. Abroad, the U.S.-backed
Dawes Plan, adopted that August, reorganized Germany’s war reparations
payments and opened the way for American loans into the German economy,
helping stabilize European currencies after the hyperinflation that had
peaked in 1923. At home, Calvin Coolidge, who had served out
the remainder of Warren Harding’s term after his death the previous year,
won a full term of his own that November, campaigning on continued
prosperity and limited government. First-class postage remained at 2 cents,
a price unchanged since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1914 to 1924: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1924/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1914 to 1924. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1914-to-1924/