$100 in 1924 is worth $104 in 1926,
because prices increased 3.5% over that period, an average of
1.74% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$104
in 1926
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
3.5%
Average inflation rate
1.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$104
Price difference ($100 base)
$3.51
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1926
17.7
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
$100 in 1924 → 1926
$104
$100 in 1926 → 1924
$96.61
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1926
Between 1924 and 1926, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 17.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 3.5%, which works out to an average of
1.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1926: the 1924 dollar
lost 3.4% of its purchasing power over
these 2 years.
Consumer prices held flat in 1924, the CPI’s annual average unchanged from
1923 after swinging from a sharp postwar drop to a modest rise the year
before. That stability, extending the calm that had settled in after the
deflation of 1921 and 1922, became a defining feature of the rest of the
decade. Congress tightened immigration policy further with the Immigration
Act of 1924, signed May 26, which cut the national-origins quota from 3% of
each nationality’s 1910 census population to 2% of its 1890 population,
shifting admissions further toward northern and western Europe and
effectively excluding most immigration from Asia. Abroad, the U.S.-backed
Dawes Plan, adopted that August, reorganized Germany’s war reparations
payments and opened the way for American loans into the German economy,
helping stabilize European currencies after the hyperinflation that had
peaked in 1923. At home, Calvin Coolidge, who had served out
the remainder of Warren Harding’s term after his death the previous year,
won a full term of his own that November, campaigning on continued
prosperity and limited government. First-class postage remained at 2 cents,
a price unchanged since mid-1919.
Every 1924 amount converts to 1926 at the same ratio, 1.04: $1,000 becomes
$1,035, and $10,000 becomes $10,351.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1926
$1.00
$1.04
$5.00
$5.18
$10.00
$10.35
$20.00
$20.70
$50.00
$51.75
$100
$104
$500
$518
$1,000
$1,035
$5,000
$5,175
$10,000
$10,351
$100,000
$103,509
$1,000,000
$1,035,088
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1926
Between 1924 and 1926, food rose the most, up 11.8%, while apparel fell 3.4%, against 3.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1926, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.74%
$104
Food
5.76%
$112
Apparel
-1.69%
$96.64
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1924: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $102 by
1925, on its way to $104 in 1926; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 2.3% in 1925, and the smallest rise was 1.1% in 1926.
In 1926, prices rose 1.1% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $104; the year's average CPI of 17.7 is the level
behind every 1926 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.1% in 1926, a third straight year of mild inflation
and part of the price stability that defined the middle of the decade.
Florida’s real estate boom, which had peaked the previous year on
speculative buying of undeveloped land, ended abruptly that September when
the Great Miami Hurricane made landfall near the city, killing hundreds and
wrecking the market for land whose value had rested on continued
speculation rather than anything underneath it. In Detroit, Henry Ford moved
his company to a five-day, 40-hour work week without cutting pay, a break
from the standard six-day schedule that other large employers would
gradually adopt over the following decades; Ford argued publicly that
workers with more leisure time would also become better customers for the
cars his factories built. Consumer prices remained low enough by historical
standards that a first-class stamp still cost just 2 cents, the same price
it had held since mid-1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1926: $100 is worth $104 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1926/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1926. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1926/