$100 in 1922 is worth $82.74 in 1939,
because prices declined 17.3% over that period, an average of
1.11% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$82.74
in 1939
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-17.3%
Average inflation rate
-1.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$82.74
Price difference ($100 base)
-$17.26
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1939
13.9
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1939
-1.42%
$100 in 1922 → 1939
$82.74
$100 in 1939 → 1922
$121
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1939
Between 1922 and 1939, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 17.3%, which works out to an average of
-1.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$1.21 buys in 1939: the 1922 dollar
gained 20.9% in purchasing power over
these 17 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 1939 at the same ratio, 0.83: $1,000 becomes
$827, and $10,000 becomes $8,274.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1939
$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, 1922–1939
Every category fell between 1922 and 1939: food the most, down 20.8%, and apparel the least, down 20.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1939, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.11%
$82.74
Apparel
-1.30%
$80.00
Food
-1.36%
$79.19
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 1939
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.1% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1939 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1939
-2.02%
-16.8%
$82.74
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 $82.74 in 1939; 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 1939, prices fell 1.4% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $82.74; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1939 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.4% in 1939, closing out a decade in which the CPI
fell in six years and rose in four, leaving prices 18.7% below their
1929 level even after the mid-decade recovery. Measured
against the start of the CPI’s modern record, prices still stood 40.4%
above their 1913 level, a reminder that even a decade defined
by deflation left the cost of living well above where it had been a
generation earlier. The decade’s final months reset the economic picture
entirely. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, and Britain and France
declared war two days later; the United States stayed formally neutral
under the Neutrality Acts, but Allied orders for war materiel began flowing
to American factories almost immediately, a demand shock that would do more
to end the Depression over the next few years than any peacetime relief
program had managed. Domestic policy kept building on the New Deal’s
framework, too: the federal minimum wage rose to 30 cents an hour that
October, the second step in the schedule set by the 1938 Fair Labor
Standards Act. Amid it all, the New York World’s Fair opened April 30 in
Queens, themed “The World of Tomorrow” and drawing tens of millions of
visitors with exhibits on television and other technologies promising a
more prosperous decade than the one just ending. First-class postage held
at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1939: $100 is worth $82.74 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1939/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1939. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1939/