$100 in 1922 is worth $167 in 1957,
because prices increased 67.3% over that period, an average of
1.48% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$167
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
67.3%
Average inflation rate
1.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$167
Price difference ($100 base)
$67.26
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1922 → 1957
$167
$100 in 1957 → 1922
$59.79
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1957
Between 1922 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 67.3%, which works out to an average of
1.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1957: the 1922 dollar
lost 40.2% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.67: $1,000 becomes
$1,673, and $10,000 becomes $16,726.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.67
$5.00
$8.36
$10.00
$16.73
$20.00
$33.45
$50.00
$83.63
$100
$167
$500
$836
$1,000
$1,673
$5,000
$8,363
$10,000
$16,726
$100,000
$167,262
$1,000,000
$1,672,619
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1957
Between 1922 and 1957, food rose the most, up 94.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 64.8%, against 67.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.48%
$167
Food
1.91%
$194
Apparel
1.44%
$165
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 1957
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 1922–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$167
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $83.33 by
1940, on its way to $167 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $167; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1957: $100 is worth $167 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1957/