$100 in 1924 is worth $157 in 1955,
because prices increased 56.7% over that period, an average of
1.46% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$157
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
56.7%
Average inflation rate
1.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$157
Price difference ($100 base)
$56.73
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1924 → 1955
$157
$100 in 1955 → 1924
$63.81
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1955
Between 1924 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 56.7%, which works out to an average of
1.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1955: the 1924 dollar
lost 36.2% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1955 at the same ratio, 1.57: $1,000 becomes
$1,567, and $10,000 becomes $15,673.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1955
$1.00
$1.57
$5.00
$7.84
$10.00
$15.67
$20.00
$31.35
$50.00
$78.36
$100
$157
$500
$784
$1,000
$1,567
$5,000
$7,836
$10,000
$15,673
$100,000
$156,725
$1,000,000
$1,567,251
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1955
Between 1924 and 1955, food rose the most, up 82.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 60.1%, against 56.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.46%
$157
Food
1.97%
$183
Apparel
1.53%
$160
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 1955
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 1924–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$157
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $81.87 by
1940, on its way to $157 in 1955; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1955
In 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $157; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1955: $100 is worth $157 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1955/