$100 in 1922 is worth $162 in 1956,
because prices increased 61.9% over that period, an average of
1.43% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$162
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
61.9%
Average inflation rate
1.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$162
Price difference ($100 base)
$61.90
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1922 → 1956
$162
$100 in 1956 → 1922
$61.76
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1956
Between 1922 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 61.9%, which works out to an average of
1.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1956: the 1922 dollar
lost 38.2% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.62: $1,000 becomes
$1,619, and $10,000 becomes $16,190.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.62
$5.00
$8.10
$10.00
$16.19
$20.00
$32.38
$50.00
$80.95
$100
$162
$500
$810
$1,000
$1,619
$5,000
$8,095
$10,000
$16,190
$100,000
$161,905
$1,000,000
$1,619,048
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1956
Between 1922 and 1956, food rose the most, up 87.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 61.9%, against 61.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.43%
$162
Food
1.87%
$188
Apparel
1.43%
$162
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 1956
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 1922–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$162
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 $162 in 1956; 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: 1956
In 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $162; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1956: $100 is worth $162 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1956/