$100 in 1922 is worth $574 in 1982,
because prices increased 474.4% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1922 has
the same buying power as
$574
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
474.4%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$574
Price difference ($100 base)
$474
CPI in 1922
16.8
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1922
-6.15%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1922 → 1982
$574
$100 in 1982 → 1922
$17.41
What happened to prices between 1922 and 1982
Between 1922 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 16.8 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 474.4%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1922 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1982: the 1922 dollar
lost 82.6% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1982 at the same ratio, 5.74: $1,000 becomes
$5,744, and $10,000 becomes $57,440.
Amount in 1922
Value in 1982
$1.00
$5.74
$5.00
$28.72
$10.00
$57.44
$20.00
$115
$50.00
$287
$100
$574
$500
$2,872
$1,000
$5,744
$5,000
$28,720
$10,000
$57,440
$100,000
$574,405
$1,000,000
$5,744,048
Inflation by spending category, 1922–1982
Between 1922 and 1982, food rose the most, up 553.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 262.2%, against 474.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1922
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1922 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$574
Food
3.18%
$654
Apparel
2.17%
$362
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1922–1982 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$176
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$231
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$490
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$574
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1922
$100 from 1922 had already become $158 by
1952, on its way to $574 in 1982; 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: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1922 had the buying
power of $574; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1922 to 1982: $100 is worth $574 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1922 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1922-to-1982/