$100 in 1922 is worth $133 in 1947,
because prices increased 32.7% over that period, an average of
1.14% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$133
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
32.7%
Average inflation rate
1.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$133
Price difference ($100 base)
$32.74
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1922 → 1947
$133
$100 in 1947 → 1922
$75.34
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1947
Between 1922 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 32.7%, which works out to an average of
1.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.75 buys in 1947: the 1922 dollar
lost 24.7% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.33: $1,000 becomes
$1,327, and $10,000 becomes $13,274.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.33
$5.00
$6.64
$10.00
$13.27
$20.00
$26.55
$50.00
$66.37
$100
$133
$500
$664
$1,000
$1,327
$5,000
$6,637
$10,000
$13,274
$100,000
$132,738
$1,000,000
$1,327,381
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1947
Between 1922 and 1947, food rose the most, up 61.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 47.8%, against 32.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.14%
$133
Food
1.94%
$162
Apparel
1.57%
$148
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1947 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
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$133
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 $133 in 1947; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $133; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1947: $100 is worth $133 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1947/