$100 in 1922 is worth $105 in 1944,
because prices increased 4.8% over that period, an average of
0.21% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$105
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
4.8%
Average inflation rate
0.21% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$105
Price difference ($100 base)
$4.76
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1922 → 1944
$105
$100 in 1944 → 1922
$95.45
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1944
Between 1922 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 4.8%, which works out to an average of
0.21% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.95 buys in 1944: the 1922 dollar
lost 4.5% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.05: $1,000 becomes
$1,048, and $10,000 becomes $10,476.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.05
$5.00
$5.24
$10.00
$10.48
$20.00
$20.95
$50.00
$52.38
$100
$105
$500
$524
$1,000
$1,048
$5,000
$5,238
$10,000
$10,476
$100,000
$104,762
$1,000,000
$1,047,619
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1944
Between 1922 and 1944, food rose the most, up 13.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 10.4%, against 4.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.21%
$105
Food
0.57%
$113
Apparel
0.45%
$110
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 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1944 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
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$105
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $77.38 by
1933, on its way to $105 in 1944; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $105; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1944: $100 is worth $105 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1944/