$100 in 1924 is worth $85.96 in 1941,
because prices declined 14.0% over that period, an average of
0.89% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$85.96
in 1941
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-14.0%
Average inflation rate
-0.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$85.96
Price difference ($100 base)
-$14.04
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1941
14.7
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1941
5.00%
$100 in 1924 → 1941
$85.96
$100 in 1941 → 1924
$116
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1941
Between 1924 and 1941, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 14.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 14.0%, which works out to an average of
-0.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$1.16 buys in 1941: the 1924 dollar
gained 16.3% in purchasing power over
these 17 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 1941 at the same ratio, 0.86: $1,000 becomes
$860, and $10,000 becomes $8,596.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1941
$1.00
$0.86
$5.00
$4.30
$10.00
$8.60
$20.00
$17.19
$50.00
$42.98
$100
$85.96
$500
$430
$1,000
$860
$5,000
$4,298
$10,000
$8,596
$100,000
$85,965
$1,000,000
$859,649
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1941
Every category fell between 1924 and 1941: apparel the most, down 14.9%, and food the least, down 13.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1941, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.89%
$85.96
Food
-0.87%
$86.18
Apparel
-0.95%
$85.07
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 1941
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.00% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1941 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1924, at end
1924–1930
-0.39%
-2.3%
$97.66
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$81.87
1940–1941
5.00%
5.0%
$85.96
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $80.12 by
1932, on its way to $85.96 in 1941; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 5.0% in 1941, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1941, prices rose 5.0% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $85.96; the year's average CPI of 14.7 is the level
behind every 1941 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.0% in 1941, up sharply from just 0.7% in
1940 and the fastest annual increase since 1920, as
rearmament and Lend-Lease production pushed demand well ahead of peacetime
supply even before the United States formally joined the war. Congress had
already tilted the country away from neutrality that March, passing the
Lend-Lease Act to arm Britain, and later the Soviet Union and other Allies,
without requiring immediate payment. That April, the government created the
Office of Price Administration to hold down the cost of civilian goods, the
start of a price-control system that would keep official inflation numbers
well below what wartime demand alone would have produced over the next four
years. Then, on December 7, Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor,
destroying much of the Pacific Fleet and killing more than 2,400 Americans.
Congress declared war on Japan the next day and on Germany and Italy three
days later, ending years of debate over whether the United States should
stay out of the conflict spreading across Europe and Asia. Consumer prices,
already up 48.5% from their 1913 level, would climb far
faster over the next two years as the economy converted fully to war
production. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1941: $100 is worth $85.96 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1941/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1941. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1941/