$100 in 1921 is worth $101 in 1945,
because prices increased 0.6% over that period, an average of
0.02% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.6%
Average inflation rate
0.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.56
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1921 → 1945
$101
$100 in 1945 → 1921
$99.44
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1945
Between 1921 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.6%, which works out to an average of
0.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1945: the 1921 dollar
lost 0.6% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,006, and $10,000 becomes $10,056.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.03
$10.00
$10.06
$20.00
$20.11
$50.00
$50.28
$100
$101
$500
$503
$1,000
$1,006
$5,000
$5,028
$10,000
$10,056
$100,000
$100,559
$1,000,000
$1,005,587
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1945
Between 1921 and 1945, food rose the most, up 8.8%, while apparel fell 5.4%, against 0.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.02%
$101
Food
0.35%
$109
Apparel
-0.23%
$94.58
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 1945
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.15% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1945 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
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$101
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $72.63 by
1933, on its way to $101 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1945: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1945/