$100 in 1919 is worth $98.84 in 1924,
because prices declined 1.2% over that period, an average of
0.23% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$98.84
in 1924
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-1.2%
Average inflation rate
-0.23% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$98.84
Price difference ($100 base)
-$1.16
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1924
17.1
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
$100 in 1919 → 1924
$98.84
$100 in 1924 → 1919
$101
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1924
Between 1919 and 1924, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 17.1.
Cumulatively, prices declined 1.2%, which works out to an average of
-0.23% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$1.01 buys in 1924: the 1919 dollar
gained 1.2% in purchasing power over
these 5 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1924 at the same ratio, 0.99: $1,000 becomes
$988, and $10,000 becomes $9,884.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1924
$1.00
$0.99
$5.00
$4.94
$10.00
$9.88
$20.00
$19.77
$50.00
$49.42
$100
$98.84
$500
$494
$1,000
$988
$5,000
$4,942
$10,000
$9,884
$100,000
$98,844
$1,000,000
$988,439
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1924
Every category fell between 1919 and 1924: apparel the most, down 26.0%, and food the least, down 18.3%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1924, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.23%
$98.84
Food
-3.96%
$81.72
Apparel
-5.84%
$74.03
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1924
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (3.8% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1924 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1924
-3.84%
-14.5%
$98.84
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $103 by
1921, on its way to $98.84 in 1924; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1924, prices rose 0.0% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $98.84; 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 1919 to 1924: $100 is worth $98.84 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1924/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1924. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1924/