$100 in 1924 is worth $80.12 in 1935,
because prices declined 19.9% over that period, an average of
2.00% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$80.12
in 1935
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-19.9%
Average inflation rate
-2.00% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$80.12
Price difference ($100 base)
-$19.88
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1935
13.7
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
$100 in 1924 → 1935
$80.12
$100 in 1935 → 1924
$125
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1935
Between 1924 and 1935, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 19.9%, which works out to an average of
-2.00% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$1.25 buys in 1935: the 1924 dollar
gained 24.8% in purchasing power over
these 11 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 1935 at the same ratio, 0.80: $1,000 becomes
$801, and $10,000 becomes $8,012.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1935
$1.00
$0.80
$5.00
$4.01
$10.00
$8.01
$20.00
$16.02
$50.00
$40.06
$100
$80.12
$500
$401
$1,000
$801
$5,000
$4,006
$10,000
$8,012
$100,000
$80,117
$1,000,000
$801,170
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1935
Every category fell between 1924 and 1935: apparel the most, down 22.4%, and food the least, down 18.4%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1935, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.00%
$80.12
Food
-1.83%
$81.58
Apparel
-2.28%
$77.61
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 1935
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1935 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1924, at end
1924–1930
-0.39%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1935
-3.88%
-18.0%
$80.12
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $100 by
1929, on its way to $80.12 in 1935; 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 1935, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $80.12; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1935 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1935: $100 is worth $80.12 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1935/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1935. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1935/