$100 in 1921 is worth $157 in 1957,
because prices increased 57.0% over that period, an average of
1.26% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$157
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
57.0%
Average inflation rate
1.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$157
Price difference ($100 base)
$56.98
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1921 → 1957
$157
$100 in 1957 → 1921
$63.70
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1957
Between 1921 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 57.0%, which works out to an average of
1.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1957: the 1921 dollar
lost 36.3% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.57: $1,000 becomes
$1,570, and $10,000 becomes $15,698.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.57
$5.00
$7.85
$10.00
$15.70
$20.00
$31.40
$50.00
$78.49
$100
$157
$500
$785
$1,000
$1,570
$5,000
$7,849
$10,000
$15,698
$100,000
$156,983
$1,000,000
$1,569,832
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1957
Between 1921 and 1957, food rose the most, up 81.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 34.0%, against 57.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.26%
$157
Food
1.67%
$182
Apparel
0.82%
$134
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 1957
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 1921–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$157
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $77.65 by
1939, on its way to $157 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $157; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1957: $100 is worth $157 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1957/