$100 in 1921 is worth $78.77 in 1938,
because prices declined 21.2% over that period, an average of
1.39% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$78.77
in 1938
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-21.2%
Average inflation rate
-1.39% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$78.77
Price difference ($100 base)
-$21.23
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1938
14.1
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
$100 in 1921 → 1938
$78.77
$100 in 1938 → 1921
$127
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1938
Between 1921 and 1938, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 14.1.
Cumulatively, prices declined 21.2%, which works out to an average of
-1.39% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$1.27 buys in 1938: the 1921 dollar
gained 27.0% in purchasing power over
these 17 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 1938 at the same ratio, 0.79: $1,000 becomes
$788, and $10,000 becomes $7,877.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1938
$1.00
$0.79
$5.00
$3.94
$10.00
$7.88
$20.00
$15.75
$50.00
$39.39
$100
$78.77
$500
$394
$1,000
$788
$5,000
$3,939
$10,000
$7,877
$100,000
$78,771
$1,000,000
$787,709
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1938
Every category fell between 1921 and 1938: apparel the most, down 34.0%, and food the least, down 23.9%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1938, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.39%
$78.77
Food
-1.59%
$76.10
Apparel
-2.42%
$65.96
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 1938
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1938 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1938
-2.09%
-15.6%
$78.77
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $95.53 by
1929, on its way to $78.77 in 1938; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1938, prices fell 2.1% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $78.77; the year's average CPI of 14.1 is the level
behind every 1938 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1938: $100 is worth $78.77 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1938/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1938. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1938/