$100 in 1921 is worth $74.86 in 1934,
because prices declined 25.1% over that period, an average of
2.20% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$74.86
in 1934
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-25.1%
Average inflation rate
-2.20% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$74.86
Price difference ($100 base)
-$25.14
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1934
13.4
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
$100 in 1921 → 1934
$74.86
$100 in 1934 → 1921
$134
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1934
Between 1921 and 1934, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 13.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 25.1%, which works out to an average of
-2.20% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$1.34 buys in 1934: the 1921 dollar
gained 33.6% in purchasing power over
these 13 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 1934 at the same ratio, 0.75: $1,000 becomes
$749, and $10,000 becomes $7,486.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1934
$1.00
$0.75
$5.00
$3.74
$10.00
$7.49
$20.00
$14.97
$50.00
$37.43
$100
$74.86
$500
$374
$1,000
$749
$5,000
$3,743
$10,000
$7,486
$100,000
$74,860
$1,000,000
$748,603
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1934
Every category fell between 1921 and 1934: apparel the most, down 38.0%, and food the least, down 27.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1934, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.20%
$74.86
Food
-2.40%
$72.96
Apparel
-3.60%
$62.05
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 1934
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (5.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1934 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1934
-5.36%
-19.8%
$74.86
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $97.21 by
1927, on its way to $74.86 in 1934; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.1% in 1934, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1934, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $74.86; the year's average CPI of 13.4 is the level
behind every 1934 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1934: $100 is worth $74.86 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1934/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1934. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1934/