$100 in 1922 is worth $87.50 in 1941,
because prices declined 12.5% over that period, an average of
0.70% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$87.50
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-12.5%
Average inflation rate
-0.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$87.50
Price difference ($100 base)
-$12.50
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1922 → 1941
$87.50
$100 in 1941 → 1922
$114
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1941
Between 1922 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 12.5%, which works out to an average of
-0.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$1.14 buys in 1941: the 1922 dollar
gained 14.3% in purchasing power over
these 19 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 1941 at the same ratio, 0.87: $1,000 becomes
$875, and $10,000 becomes $8,750.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1941
$1.00
$0.87
$5.00
$4.37
$10.00
$8.75
$20.00
$17.50
$50.00
$43.75
$100
$87.50
$500
$437
$1,000
$875
$5,000
$4,375
$10,000
$8,750
$100,000
$87,500
$1,000,000
$875,000
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1941
Every category fell between 1922 and 1941: apparel the most, down 15.6%, and food the least, down 12.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.70%
$87.50
Food
-0.68%
$87.92
Apparel
-0.89%
$84.44
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 1941
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.00% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1941 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1922, at end
1922–1930
-0.07%
-0.6%
$99.40
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$83.33
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$87.50
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $90.48 by
1931, on its way to $87.50 in 1941; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.0% in 1941, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $87.50; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1941: $100 is worth $87.50 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1941/