$100 in 1921 is worth $109 in 1946,
because prices increased 8.9% over that period, an average of
0.34% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$109
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
8.9%
Average inflation rate
0.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$109
Price difference ($100 base)
$8.94
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1921 → 1946
$109
$100 in 1946 → 1921
$91.79
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1946
Between 1921 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 8.9%, which works out to an average of
0.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.92 buys in 1946: the 1921 dollar
lost 8.2% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.09: $1,000 becomes
$1,089, and $10,000 becomes $10,894.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.09
$5.00
$5.45
$10.00
$10.89
$20.00
$21.79
$50.00
$54.47
$100
$109
$500
$545
$1,000
$1,089
$5,000
$5,447
$10,000
$10,894
$100,000
$108,939
$1,000,000
$1,089,385
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1946
Between 1921 and 1946, food rose the most, up 24.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 3.6%, against 8.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.34%
$109
Food
0.88%
$125
Apparel
0.14%
$104
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 1946
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.68% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1946 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
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$109
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 $109 in 1946; 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 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $109; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1946: $100 is worth $109 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1946/