$100 in 1921 is worth $364 in 1978,
because prices increased 264.2% over that period, an average of
2.29% a year.
$100 in 1921 has
the same buying power as
$364
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
264.2%
Average inflation rate
2.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$364
Price difference ($100 base)
$264
CPI in 1921
17.9
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1921
-10.50%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1921 → 1978
$364
$100 in 1978 → 1921
$27.45
What happened to prices between 1921 and 1978
Between 1921 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.9 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 264.2%, which works out to an average of
2.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1921 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1978: the 1921 dollar
lost 72.5% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1978 at the same ratio, 3.64: $1,000 becomes
$3,642, and $10,000 becomes $36,425.
Amount in 1921
Value in 1978
$1.00
$3.64
$5.00
$18.21
$10.00
$36.42
$20.00
$72.85
$50.00
$182
$100
$364
$500
$1,821
$1,000
$3,642
$5,000
$18,212
$10,000
$36,425
$100,000
$364,246
$1,000,000
$3,642,458
Inflation by spending category, 1921–1978
Between 1921 and 1978, food rose the most, up 352.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 145.2%, against 264.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1921
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1921 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.29%
$364
Food
2.69%
$453
Apparel
1.59%
$245
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1921–1978 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$165
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$217
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$364
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1921
$100 from 1921 had already become $133 by
1949, on its way to $364 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1921 had the buying
power of $364; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1921 to 1978: $100 is worth $364 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1921 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1921-to-1978/