$100 in 1922 is worth $82.74 in 1936,
because prices declined 17.3% over that period, an average of
1.34% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$82.74
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-17.3%
Average inflation rate
-1.34% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$82.74
Price difference ($100 base)
-$17.26
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1922 → 1936
$82.74
$100 in 1936 → 1922
$121
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1936
Between 1922 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 17.3%, which works out to an average of
-1.34% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$1.21 buys in 1936: the 1922 dollar
gained 20.9% in purchasing power over
these 14 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 1936 at the same ratio, 0.83: $1,000 becomes
$827, and $10,000 becomes $8,274.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1936
$1.00
$0.83
$5.00
$4.14
$10.00
$8.27
$20.00
$16.55
$50.00
$41.37
$100
$82.74
$500
$414
$1,000
$827
$5,000
$4,137
$10,000
$8,274
$100,000
$82,738
$1,000,000
$827,381
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1936
Every category fell between 1922 and 1936: apparel the most, down 22.2%, and food the least, down 15.4%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.34%
$82.74
Food
-1.19%
$84.56
Apparel
-1.78%
$77.78
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 1936
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.1% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1936 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$82.74
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $102 by
1929, on its way to $82.74 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $82.74; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1936: $100 is worth $82.74 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1936/