$100 in 1921 is worth $77.65 in 1939,
because prices declined 22.3% over that period, an average of
1.40% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$77.65
in 1939
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-22.3%
Average inflation rate
-1.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$77.65
Price difference ($100 base)
-$22.35
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1939
13.9
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
$100 in 1921 → 1939
$77.65
$100 in 1939 → 1921
$129
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1939
Between 1921 and 1939, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 22.3%, which works out to an average of
-1.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$1.29 buys in 1939: the 1921 dollar
gained 28.8% in purchasing power over
these 18 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 1939 at the same ratio, 0.78: $1,000 becomes
$777, and $10,000 becomes $7,765.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1939
$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, 1921–1939
Every category fell between 1921 and 1939: apparel the most, down 34.9%, and food the least, down 25.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1939, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.40%
$77.65
Food
-1.64%
$74.21
Apparel
-2.36%
$65.06
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 1939
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.8% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1939 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1939
-2.02%
-16.8%
$77.65
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $93.30 by
1930, on its way to $77.65 in 1939; 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 1939, prices fell 1.4% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $77.65; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1939 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1939: $100 is worth $77.65 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1939/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1939. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1939/