$100 in 1922 is worth $79.76 in 1934,
because prices declined 20.2% over that period, an average of
1.87% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$79.76
in 1934
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-20.2%
Average inflation rate
-1.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$79.76
Price difference ($100 base)
-$20.24
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1934
13.4
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
$100 in 1922 → 1934
$79.76
$100 in 1934 → 1922
$125
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1934
Between 1922 and 1934, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 13.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 20.2%, which works out to an average of
-1.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$1.25 buys in 1934: the 1922 dollar
gained 25.4% in purchasing power over
these 12 years.
Consumer prices fell another 6.1% in 1922, the second straight year of
decline, even as the broader economy climbed out of the Depression of
1920-21 and industrial production rebounded. The CPI had now given back
roughly a third of its wartime runup, though it stayed well above the
1913 baseline. Congress moved to shield that recovery from
foreign competition: the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, signed September 21,
raised duties on hundreds of imported goods to some of the highest levels in
U.S. history, a policy meant to protect farmers and manufacturers still
adjusting to postwar prices. Labor tension flared even as prices fell.
Roughly half a million bituminous coal miners struck that April over wage
cuts employers had imposed as prices dropped, and hundreds of thousands of
railroad shop workers walked out in July in a separate dispute over pay and
work rules, together the largest strike wave since 1919. Both disputes
dragged on for months and drew federal mediation before ending without full
concessions for the workers. First-class postage remained at 2 cents.
Every 1922 amount converts to 1934 at the same ratio, 0.80: $1,000 becomes
$798, and $10,000 becomes $7,976.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1934
$1.00
$0.80
$5.00
$3.99
$10.00
$7.98
$20.00
$15.95
$50.00
$39.88
$100
$79.76
$500
$399
$1,000
$798
$5,000
$3,988
$10,000
$7,976
$100,000
$79,762
$1,000,000
$797,619
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1934
Every category fell between 1922 and 1934: apparel the most, down 23.7%, and food the least, down 22.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1934, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.87%
$79.76
Food
-2.06%
$77.85
Apparel
-2.23%
$76.30
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1922: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1922 to 1934
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.1% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (5.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1934 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1934
-5.36%
-19.8%
$79.76
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $102 by
1928, on its way to $79.76 in 1934; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.1% in 1934, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1934, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $79.76; the year's average CPI of 13.4 is the level
behind every 1934 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1934: $100 is worth $79.76 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1934/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1934. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1934/