$100 in 1921 is worth $98.32 in 1944,
because prices declined 1.7% over that period, an average of
0.07% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$98.32
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-1.7%
Average inflation rate
-0.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$98.32
Price difference ($100 base)
-$1.68
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1921 → 1944
$98.32
$100 in 1944 → 1921
$102
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1944
Between 1921 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices declined 1.7%, which works out to an average of
-0.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$1.02 buys in 1944: the 1921 dollar
gained 1.7% in purchasing power over
these 23 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 1944 at the same ratio, 0.98: $1,000 becomes
$983, and $10,000 becomes $9,832.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1944
$1.00
$0.98
$5.00
$4.92
$10.00
$9.83
$20.00
$19.66
$50.00
$49.16
$100
$98.32
$500
$492
$1,000
$983
$5,000
$4,916
$10,000
$9,832
$100,000
$98,324
$1,000,000
$983,240
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1944
Between 1921 and 1944, food rose the most, up 6.3%, while apparel fell 10.2%, against 1.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.07%
$98.32
Food
0.27%
$106
Apparel
-0.47%
$89.76
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 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1944 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1921, at end
1921–1930
-0.77%
-6.7%
$93.30
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$78.21
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$98.32
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $76.54 by
1932, on its way to $98.32 in 1944; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $98.32; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1944: $100 is worth $98.32 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1944/