$100 in 1922 is worth $158 in 1952,
because prices increased 57.7% over that period, an average of
1.53% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$158
in 1952
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
57.7%
Average inflation rate
1.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$158
Price difference ($100 base)
$57.74
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1952
26.5
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1952
1.92%
$100 in 1922 → 1952
$158
$100 in 1952 → 1922
$63.40
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1952
Between 1922 and 1952, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 26.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 57.7%, which works out to an average of
1.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1952: the 1922 dollar
lost 36.6% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1952 at the same ratio, 1.58: $1,000 becomes
$1,577, and $10,000 becomes $15,774.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1952
$1.00
$1.58
$5.00
$7.89
$10.00
$15.77
$20.00
$31.55
$50.00
$78.87
$100
$158
$500
$789
$1,000
$1,577
$5,000
$7,887
$10,000
$15,774
$100,000
$157,738
$1,000,000
$1,577,381
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1952
Between 1922 and 1952, food rose the most, up 92.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.1%, against 57.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1952, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.53%
$158
Food
2.21%
$193
Apparel
1.60%
$161
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 1952
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1952 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$143
1950–1952
4.86%
10.0%
$158
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $85.71 by
1937, on its way to $158 in 1952; 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 1952, prices rose 1.9% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $158; the year's average CPI of 26.5 is the level
behind every 1952 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.9% in 1952, down sharply from 1951’s
7.9% as the price and wage controls imposed the year before held the cost
of living in check even with the Korean War still underway. Labor strife
tested those controls that spring: to head off a strike that could have
disrupted war production, President Truman ordered the government to
seize the steel industry that April, over the objections of steel
companies fighting the price the Office of Price Stabilization had set for
their product. The Supreme Court ruled the seizure unconstitutional in
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer that June, a landmark limit on
presidential power, and steelworkers then struck for 53 days before a
settlement. Politics delivered the year’s biggest change that November:
Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson, promising to “go to Korea” to
end the war and returning Republicans to the White House for the first
time since 1933. The Cold War’s technological edge sharpened that same
month, when the United States tested the first hydrogen bomb at Enewetak
Atoll on November 1, a device hundreds of times more powerful than the
atomic bombs used against Japan in 1945. Consumer prices finished 1952
167.7% above their 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1952: $100 is worth $158 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1952/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1952. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1952/