$100 in 1921 is worth $77.65 in 1936,
because prices declined 22.3% over that period, an average of
1.67% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$77.65
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-22.3%
Average inflation rate
-1.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$77.65
Price difference ($100 base)
-$22.35
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1921 → 1936
$77.65
$100 in 1936 → 1921
$129
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1936
Between 1921 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 22.3%, which works out to an average of
-1.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$1.29 buys in 1936: the 1921 dollar
gained 28.8% in purchasing power over
these 15 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 1936 at the same ratio, 0.78: $1,000 becomes
$777, and $10,000 becomes $7,765.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1936
$1.00
$0.78
$5.00
$3.88
$10.00
$7.77
$20.00
$15.53
$50.00
$38.83
$100
$77.65
$500
$388
$1,000
$777
$5,000
$3,883
$10,000
$7,765
$100,000
$77,654
$1,000,000
$776,536
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1936
Every category fell between 1921 and 1936: apparel the most, down 36.7%, and food the least, down 20.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.67%
$77.65
Food
-1.54%
$79.25
Apparel
-3.01%
$63.25
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 1936
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1936 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$77.65
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $95.53 by
1928, on its way to $77.65 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $77.65; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1936: $100 is worth $77.65 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1936/