$100 in 1924 is worth $103 in 1944,
because prices increased 2.9% over that period, an average of
0.14% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$103
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
2.9%
Average inflation rate
0.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$103
Price difference ($100 base)
$2.92
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1924 → 1944
$103
$100 in 1944 → 1924
$97.16
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1944
Between 1924 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 2.9%, which works out to an average of
0.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.97 buys in 1944: the 1924 dollar
lost 2.8% of its purchasing power over
these 20 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.03: $1,000 becomes
$1,029, and $10,000 becomes $10,292.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.03
$5.00
$5.15
$10.00
$10.29
$20.00
$20.58
$50.00
$51.46
$100
$103
$500
$515
$1,000
$1,029
$5,000
$5,146
$10,000
$10,292
$100,000
$102,924
$1,000,000
$1,029,240
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1944
Between 1924 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 11.2%, while food rose the least, up 11.2%, against 2.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.14%
$103
Apparel
0.53%
$111
Food
0.53%
$111
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 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1944 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
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$103
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $78.36 by
1934, on its way to $103 in 1944; 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 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $103; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1944: $100 is worth $103 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1944/