$100 in 1922 is worth $160 in 1955,
because prices increased 59.5% over that period, an average of
1.43% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$160
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
59.5%
Average inflation rate
1.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$160
Price difference ($100 base)
$59.52
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1922 → 1955
$160
$100 in 1955 → 1922
$62.69
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1955
Between 1922 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 59.5%, which works out to an average of
1.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.63 buys in 1955: the 1922 dollar
lost 37.3% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1955 at the same ratio, 1.60: $1,000 becomes
$1,595, and $10,000 becomes $15,952.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1955
$1.00
$1.60
$5.00
$7.98
$10.00
$15.95
$20.00
$31.90
$50.00
$79.76
$100
$160
$500
$798
$1,000
$1,595
$5,000
$7,976
$10,000
$15,952
$100,000
$159,524
$1,000,000
$1,595,238
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1955
Between 1922 and 1955, food rose the most, up 86.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 58.9%, against 59.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.43%
$160
Food
1.91%
$187
Apparel
1.41%
$159
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 1955
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 1922–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$160
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $83.93 by
1938, on its way to $160 in 1955; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1955
In 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $160; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1955: $100 is worth $160 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1955/