$100 in 1922 is worth $116 in 1946,
because prices increased 16.1% over that period, an average of
0.62% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$116
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
16.1%
Average inflation rate
0.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$116
Price difference ($100 base)
$16.07
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1922 → 1946
$116
$100 in 1946 → 1922
$86.15
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1946
Between 1922 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 16.1%, which works out to an average of
0.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.86 buys in 1946: the 1922 dollar
lost 13.8% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.16: $1,000 becomes
$1,161, and $10,000 becomes $11,607.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.16
$5.00
$5.80
$10.00
$11.61
$20.00
$23.21
$50.00
$58.04
$100
$116
$500
$580
$1,000
$1,161
$5,000
$5,804
$10,000
$11,607
$100,000
$116,071
$1,000,000
$1,160,714
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1946
Between 1922 and 1946, food rose the most, up 32.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 27.4%, against 16.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.62%
$116
Food
1.19%
$133
Apparel
1.01%
$127
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 1946
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.68% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1946 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
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$116
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $79.76 by
1934, on its way to $116 in 1946; 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 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $116; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1946: $100 is worth $116 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1946/