$100 in 1924 is worth $170 in 1959,
because prices increased 70.2% over that period, an average of
1.53% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$170
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.2%
Average inflation rate
1.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$170
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.18
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1924 → 1959
$170
$100 in 1959 → 1924
$58.76
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1959
Between 1924 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.2%, which works out to an average of
1.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1959: the 1924 dollar
lost 41.2% of its purchasing power over
these 35 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 1959 at the same ratio, 1.70: $1,000 becomes
$1,702, and $10,000 becomes $17,018.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1959
$1.00
$1.70
$5.00
$8.51
$10.00
$17.02
$20.00
$34.04
$50.00
$85.09
$100
$170
$500
$851
$1,000
$1,702
$5,000
$8,509
$10,000
$17,018
$100,000
$170,175
$1,000,000
$1,701,754
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1959
Between 1924 and 1959, food rose the most, up 95.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 67.9%, against 70.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.53%
$170
Food
1.93%
$195
Apparel
1.49%
$168
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 1959
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 1924–1959 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
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$170
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $95.32 by
1942, on its way to $170 in 1959; 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: 1959
In 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $170; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1959: $100 is worth $170 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1959/