$100 in 1922 is worth $83.93 in 1938,
because prices declined 16.1% over that period, an average of
1.09% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$83.93
in 1938
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-16.1%
Average inflation rate
-1.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$83.93
Price difference ($100 base)
-$16.07
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1938
14.1
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1938
-2.08%
$100 in 1922 → 1938
$83.93
$100 in 1938 → 1922
$119
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1938
Between 1922 and 1938, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 14.1.
Cumulatively, prices declined 16.1%, which works out to an average of
-1.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$1.19 buys in 1938: the 1922 dollar
gained 19.1% in purchasing power over
these 16 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 1938 at the same ratio, 0.84: $1,000 becomes
$839, and $10,000 becomes $8,393.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1938
$1.00
$0.84
$5.00
$4.20
$10.00
$8.39
$20.00
$16.79
$50.00
$41.96
$100
$83.93
$500
$420
$1,000
$839
$5,000
$4,196
$10,000
$8,393
$100,000
$83,929
$1,000,000
$839,286
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1938
Every category fell between 1922 and 1938: apparel the most, down 18.9%, and food the least, down 18.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1938, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.09%
$83.93
Food
-1.29%
$81.21
Apparel
-1.30%
$81.11
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 1938
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.1% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1938 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1938
-2.09%
-15.6%
$83.93
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $99.40 by
1930, on its way to $83.93 in 1938; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1938, prices fell 2.1% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $83.93; the year's average CPI of 14.1 is the level
behind every 1938 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 2.1% in 1938, reversing most of 1937’s
gain and interrupting four straight years of recovery from the Depression’s
trough. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the bottom of the
downturn, which had begun that May, to June 1938, a sharp 13-month
contraction that briefly pushed unemployment back up near 19%. Even in a
year the economy was shrinking again, Congress passed one of the New Deal’s
most lasting reforms. The Fair Labor Standards Act, signed June 25 and
effective that October, established the first federal minimum wage, 25
cents an hour, capped the standard workweek at 44 hours with time-and-a-half
overtime beyond it, and restricted the employment of children in most
industries. The wage floor and hours limits applied only to workers engaged
in interstate commerce at first, but they set a precedent that would expand
in the decades that followed. Consumer prices stood 42.4% above their
1913 level and 17.5% below their 1929 peak, evidence of how
far the recovery still had to go even eight years after the Depression
began. First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1938: $100 is worth $83.93 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1938/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1938. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1938/