$100 in 1924 is worth $101 in 1943,
because prices increased 1.2% over that period, an average of
0.06% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1.2%
Average inflation rate
0.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$1.17
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1924 → 1943
$101
$100 in 1943 → 1924
$98.84
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1943
Between 1924 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1.2%, which works out to an average of
0.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1943: the 1924 dollar
lost 1.2% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1943 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,012, and $10,000 becomes $10,117.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1943
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.06
$10.00
$10.12
$20.00
$20.23
$50.00
$50.58
$100
$101
$500
$506
$1,000
$1,012
$5,000
$5,058
$10,000
$10,117
$100,000
$101,170
$1,000,000
$1,011,696
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1943
Between 1924 and 1943, food rose the most, up 12.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 3.7%, against 1.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.06%
$101
Food
0.62%
$113
Apparel
0.19%
$104
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 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1943 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
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$101
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $76.02 by
1933, on its way to $101 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1943: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1943/