$100 in 1924 is worth $81.29 in 1936,
because prices declined 18.7% over that period, an average of
1.71% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$81.29
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-18.7%
Average inflation rate
-1.71% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$81.29
Price difference ($100 base)
-$18.71
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1924 → 1936
$81.29
$100 in 1936 → 1924
$123
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1936
Between 1924 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 18.7%, which works out to an average of
-1.71% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$1.23 buys in 1936: the 1924 dollar
gained 23.0% in purchasing power over
these 12 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 1936 at the same ratio, 0.81: $1,000 becomes
$813, and $10,000 becomes $8,129.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1936
$1.00
$0.81
$5.00
$4.06
$10.00
$8.13
$20.00
$16.26
$50.00
$40.64
$100
$81.29
$500
$406
$1,000
$813
$5,000
$4,064
$10,000
$8,129
$100,000
$81,287
$1,000,000
$812,865
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1936
Every category fell between 1924 and 1936: apparel the most, down 21.6%, and food the least, down 17.1%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.71%
$81.29
Food
-1.55%
$82.89
Apparel
-2.01%
$78.36
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 1936
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1936 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1924, at end
1924–1930
-0.39%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$81.29
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $97.66 by
1930, on its way to $81.29 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $81.29; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1936: $100 is worth $81.29 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1936/