$100 in 1924 is worth $244 in 1972,
because prices increased 144.4% over that period, an average of
1.88% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$244
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
144.4%
Average inflation rate
1.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$244
Price difference ($100 base)
$144
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1924 → 1972
$244
$100 in 1972 → 1924
$40.91
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1972
Between 1924 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 144.4%, which works out to an average of
1.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.41 buys in 1972: the 1924 dollar
lost 59.1% of its purchasing power over
these 48 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 1972 at the same ratio, 2.44: $1,000 becomes
$2,444, and $10,000 becomes $24,444.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.44
$5.00
$12.22
$10.00
$24.44
$20.00
$48.89
$50.00
$122
$100
$244
$500
$1,222
$1,000
$2,444
$5,000
$12,222
$10,000
$24,444
$100,000
$244,444
$1,000,000
$2,444,444
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1972
Between 1924 and 1972, food rose the most, up 177.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 132.5%, against 144.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.88%
$244
Food
2.15%
$277
Apparel
1.77%
$232
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 1972
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 1924–1972 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$173
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$227
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$244
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $141 by
1948, on its way to $244 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $244; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1972: $100 is worth $244 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1972/