$100 in 1924 is worth $156 in 1953,
because prices increased 56.1% over that period, an average of
1.55% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$156
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
56.1%
Average inflation rate
1.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$156
Price difference ($100 base)
$56.14
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1924 → 1953
$156
$100 in 1953 → 1924
$64.04
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1953
Between 1924 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 56.1%, which works out to an average of
1.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1953: the 1924 dollar
lost 36.0% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.56: $1,000 becomes
$1,561, and $10,000 becomes $15,614.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.56
$5.00
$7.81
$10.00
$15.61
$20.00
$31.23
$50.00
$78.07
$100
$156
$500
$781
$1,000
$1,561
$5,000
$7,807
$10,000
$15,614
$100,000
$156,140
$1,000,000
$1,561,404
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1953
Between 1924 and 1953, food rose the most, up 86.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.8%, against 56.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.55%
$156
Food
2.17%
$186
Apparel
1.65%
$161
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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$156
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $82.46 by
1938, on its way to $156 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $156; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $156 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1953/