$100 in 1924 is worth $152 in 1951,
because prices increased 52.0% over that period, an average of
1.56% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$152
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
52.0%
Average inflation rate
1.56% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$152
Price difference ($100 base)
$52.05
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1924 → 1951
$152
$100 in 1951 → 1924
$65.77
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1951
Between 1924 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 52.0%, which works out to an average of
1.56% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1951: the 1924 dollar
lost 34.2% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.52: $1,000 becomes
$1,520, and $10,000 becomes $15,205.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.52
$5.00
$7.60
$10.00
$15.20
$20.00
$30.41
$50.00
$76.02
$100
$152
$500
$760
$1,000
$1,520
$5,000
$7,602
$10,000
$15,205
$100,000
$152,047
$1,000,000
$1,520,468
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1951
Between 1924 and 1951, food rose the most, up 85.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.8%, against 52.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.56%
$152
Food
2.32%
$186
Apparel
1.84%
$164
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1951 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$141
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$152
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $84.21 by
1937, on its way to $152 in 1951; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $152; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1951: $100 is worth $152 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1951/