$100 in 1924 is worth $78.36 in 1934,
because prices declined 21.6% over that period, an average of
2.41% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$78.36
in 1934
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-21.6%
Average inflation rate
-2.41% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$78.36
Price difference ($100 base)
-$21.64
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1934
13.4
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1934
3.08%
$100 in 1924 → 1934
$78.36
$100 in 1934 → 1924
$128
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1934
Between 1924 and 1934, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 13.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 21.6%, which works out to an average of
-2.41% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$1.28 buys in 1934: the 1924 dollar
gained 27.6% in purchasing power over
these 10 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 1934 at the same ratio, 0.78: $1,000 becomes
$784, and $10,000 becomes $7,836.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1934
$1.00
$0.78
$5.00
$3.92
$10.00
$7.84
$20.00
$15.67
$50.00
$39.18
$100
$78.36
$500
$392
$1,000
$784
$5,000
$3,918
$10,000
$7,836
$100,000
$78,363
$1,000,000
$783,626
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1934
Every category fell between 1924 and 1934: food the most, down 23.7%, and apparel the least, down 23.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1934, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.41%
$78.36
Apparel
-2.60%
$76.87
Food
-2.67%
$76.32
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 1934
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (5.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1934 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1924, at end
1924–1930
-0.39%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1934
-5.36%
-19.8%
$78.36
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $100 by
1929, on its way to $78.36 in 1934; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.1% in 1934, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1934, prices rose 3.1% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $78.36; the year's average CPI of 13.4 is the level
behind every 1934 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.1% in 1934, the first annual increase since 1926;
every year from 1927 through 1933 had been flat or falling,
so the turn marked a real break after eight years without a single gain.
Currency policy did some of the work. The Gold Reserve Act, signed January
30, formally devalued the dollar by raising the official price of gold from
$20.67 to $35 an ounce, part of the administration’s deliberate effort to
reflate prices after four straight years of deflation. Financial regulation
tightened at the same time: the Securities Exchange Act of June 6 created
the Securities and Exchange Commission to police stock exchanges and enforce
disclosure rules, a direct response to the speculation blamed for the 1929
crash. The recovery was fragile and unevenly felt, especially on the Great
Plains, where drought had turned overplowed farmland to dust. Over May 9-11,
high winds lifted an estimated 350 million tons of topsoil into the air,
darkening skies as far away as Washington and New York and giving city
readers who had never seen a wheat field a first glimpse of the disaster
building in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Consumer prices stood 35.4% above
their 1913 level, still well below the 1929 peak but rising
for the first time since the Depression began. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1934: $100 is worth $78.36 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1934/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1934. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1934/