$100 in 1922 is worth $107 in 1945,
because prices increased 7.1% over that period, an average of
0.30% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$107
in 1945
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
7.1%
Average inflation rate
0.30% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$107
Price difference ($100 base)
$7.14
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1945
18
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1945
2.27%
$100 in 1922 → 1945
$107
$100 in 1945 → 1922
$93.33
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1945
Between 1922 and 1945, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 18.
Cumulatively, prices increased 7.1%, which works out to an average of
0.30% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.93 buys in 1945: the 1922 dollar
lost 6.7% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1945 at the same ratio, 1.07: $1,000 becomes
$1,071, and $10,000 becomes $10,714.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1945
$1.00
$1.07
$5.00
$5.36
$10.00
$10.71
$20.00
$21.43
$50.00
$53.57
$100
$107
$500
$536
$1,000
$1,071
$5,000
$5,357
$10,000
$10,714
$100,000
$107,143
$1,000,000
$1,071,429
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1945
Between 1922 and 1945, apparel rose the most, up 16.3%, while food rose the least, up 16.1%, against 7.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1945, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.30%
$107
Apparel
0.66%
$116
Food
0.65%
$116
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 1945
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.15% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1945 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
1940–1945
5.15%
28.6%
$107
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 $107 in 1945; 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 1945, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $107; the year's average CPI of 18 is the level
behind every 1945 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1945, up from 1944’s 1.7% but
still modest, a rate that understated how much pressure had built up behind
wartime price and wage controls, which stayed largely in place even as the
conflict that justified them came to a close. The year opened with a shock
at home: Franklin Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, less
than three months into an unprecedented fourth term, and Vice President
Harry Truman was sworn in that same afternoon. The war Roosevelt had led for
nearly four years ended without him. Germany surrendered on May 8, and
Japan surrendered on August 15, after atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki that month, with the formal signing aboard the USS Missouri on
September 2. Domestic policy kept moving even as the guns fell silent: the
federal minimum wage rose to 40 cents an hour that October 24, the final
step of the schedule Congress had built into the 1938 Fair Labor Standards
Act, up from 30 cents in 1939 and 25 cents at the law’s start. Consumer
prices stood 81.8% above their 1913 level, a gain that would
look modest next to what followed once wartime controls actually came off.
First-class postage held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1945: $100 is worth $107 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1945/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1945. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1945/