$100 in 1921 is worth $150 in 1955,
because prices increased 49.7% over that period, an average of
1.19% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$150
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
49.7%
Average inflation rate
1.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$150
Price difference ($100 base)
$49.72
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1921 → 1955
$150
$100 in 1955 → 1921
$66.79
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1955
Between 1921 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 49.7%, which works out to an average of
1.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1955: the 1921 dollar
lost 33.2% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1955 at the same ratio, 1.50: $1,000 becomes
$1,497, and $10,000 becomes $14,972.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1955
$1.00
$1.50
$5.00
$7.49
$10.00
$14.97
$20.00
$29.94
$50.00
$74.86
$100
$150
$500
$749
$1,000
$1,497
$5,000
$7,486
$10,000
$14,972
$100,000
$149,721
$1,000,000
$1,497,207
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1955
Between 1921 and 1955, food rose the most, up 74.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 29.2%, against 49.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.19%
$150
Food
1.66%
$175
Apparel
0.76%
$129
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 1955
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1955 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$135
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$150
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $80.45 by
1937, on its way to $150 in 1955; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1955
In 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $150; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1955: $100 is worth $150 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1955/