$100 in 1924 is worth $88.89 in 1931,
because prices declined 11.1% over that period, an average of
1.67% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$88.89
in 1931
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-11.1%
Average inflation rate
-1.67% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$88.89
Price difference ($100 base)
-$11.11
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1931
15.2
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1931
-8.98%
$100 in 1924 → 1931
$88.89
$100 in 1931 → 1924
$113
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1931
Between 1924 and 1931, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 15.2.
Cumulatively, prices declined 11.1%, which works out to an average of
-1.67% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$1.13 buys in 1931: the 1924 dollar
gained 12.5% in purchasing power over
these 7 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 1931 at the same ratio, 0.89: $1,000 becomes
$889, and $10,000 becomes $8,889.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1931
$1.00
$0.89
$5.00
$4.44
$10.00
$8.89
$20.00
$17.78
$50.00
$44.44
$100
$88.89
$500
$444
$1,000
$889
$5,000
$4,444
$10,000
$8,889
$100,000
$88,889
$1,000,000
$888,889
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1931
Every category fell between 1924 and 1931: apparel the most, down 17.9%, and food the least, down 15.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1931, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.67%
$88.89
Food
-2.32%
$84.87
Apparel
-2.78%
$82.09
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–).
Decade by decade: 1924 to 1931
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (9.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1931 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1924, at end
1924–1930
-0.39%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1931
-8.98%
-9.0%
$88.89
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $102 by
1927, on its way to $88.89 in 1931; 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 prices fell 9.0% in 1931, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1931, prices fell 9.0% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $88.89; the year's average CPI of 15.2 is the level
behind every 1931 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.0% in 1931, a sharp acceleration from the 2.3% decline
in 1930, as falling wages, collapsing farm prices, and a fresh
wave of bank failures fed a downward spiral that the still-contracting
economy could not shake. More than 2,000 banks failed during the year, far
more than in 1930, as depositors who had watched earlier banks go under
pulled their cash out of ones they feared were next. The crisis went
international that September, when Britain suspended the gold standard amid
a run on sterling. The Federal Reserve’s response made the domestic downturn
worse before it made anything better: to defend the dollar’s own gold
backing, the Fed raised its discount rate sharply that October, in two steps
from 1.5% to 3.5%, tightening credit at the exact moment the economy needed
the opposite. Not every headline that year was grim. The Empire State
Building opened its doors on May 1, briefly the tallest building in the
world, though so much of Manhattan’s office space sat vacant amid the
Depression that tenants stayed scarce and New Yorkers took to calling it the
“Empty State Building.” Consumer prices had now fallen for two straight
years and stood 53.5% above their 1913 level, down from the
68.7% margin of just twelve months before. First-class postage remained at 2
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1931: $100 is worth $88.89 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1931/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1931. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1931/