$100 in 1921 is worth $84.92 in 1931,
because prices declined 15.1% over that period, an average of
1.62% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$84.92
in 1931
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-15.1%
Average inflation rate
-1.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$84.92
Price difference ($100 base)
-$15.08
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1931
15.2
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
$100 in 1921 → 1931
$84.92
$100 in 1931 → 1921
$118
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1931
Between 1921 and 1931, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 15.2.
Cumulatively, prices declined 15.1%, which works out to an average of
-1.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$1.18 buys in 1931: the 1921 dollar
gained 17.8% in purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the mirror image of the wartime
inflation that had more than doubled the cost of living between
1913 and 1920. The Depression of 1920-21, one
of the sharpest contractions in U.S. history, bottomed out that July
according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, even though it had
lasted barely eighteen months. Unemployment climbed toward one worker in ten
as businesses cut production and prices to work through wartime inventories,
but the same collapse in prices also meant the recovery, once it started,
had room to run without reigniting inflation. Warren Harding took office
March 4, promising a return to “normalcy” after a decade of war, pandemic,
labor unrest, and rapid price swings; his administration moved quickly to
cut top income tax rates and federal spending. Congress also acted on
immigration that year: the Emergency Quota Act, signed May 19, capped annual
arrivals from each country at 3% of that nationality’s population in the
1910 census, the first time the United States had set a numerical ceiling on
immigration. The law favored northern and western Europe and cut total
immigration by more than half compared with prewar levels; Congress
tightened the formula again in 1924. First-class postage held at 2 cents,
unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1921 amount converts to 1931 at the same ratio, 0.85: $1,000 becomes
$849, and $10,000 becomes $8,492.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1931
$1.00
$0.85
$5.00
$4.25
$10.00
$8.49
$20.00
$16.98
$50.00
$42.46
$100
$84.92
$500
$425
$1,000
$849
$5,000
$4,246
$10,000
$8,492
$100,000
$84,916
$1,000,000
$849,162
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1931
Every category fell between 1921 and 1931: apparel the most, down 33.7%, and food the least, down 18.9%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1931, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.62%
$84.92
Food
-2.07%
$81.13
Apparel
-4.03%
$66.27
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1921: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1921 to 1931
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (9.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1931 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1931
-8.98%
-9.0%
$84.92
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $98.88 by
1926, on its way to $84.92 in 1931; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.3% in 1925, and prices fell 9.0% in 1931, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1931, prices fell 9.0% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $84.92; the year's average CPI of 15.2 is the level
behind every 1931 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1931: $100 is worth $84.92 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1931/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1931. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1931/