$100 in 1924 is worth $608 in 1984,
because prices increased 507.6% over that period, an average of
3.05% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$608
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
507.6%
Average inflation rate
3.05% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$608
Price difference ($100 base)
$508
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1924 → 1984
$608
$100 in 1984 → 1924
$16.46
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1984
Between 1924 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 507.6%, which works out to an average of
3.05% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.16 buys in 1984: the 1924 dollar
lost 83.5% of its purchasing power over
these 60 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 1984 at the same ratio, 6.08: $1,000 becomes
$6,076, and $10,000 becomes $60,760.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1984
$1.00
$6.08
$5.00
$30.38
$10.00
$60.76
$20.00
$122
$50.00
$304
$100
$608
$500
$3,038
$1,000
$6,076
$5,000
$30,380
$10,000
$60,760
$100,000
$607,602
$1,000,000
$6,076,023
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1984
Between 1924 and 1984, food rose the most, up 578.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 281.0%, against 507.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.05%
$608
Food
3.24%
$679
Apparel
2.25%
$381
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 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1924–1984 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$482
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$608
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $157 by
1954, on its way to $608 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $608; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1984: $100 is worth $608 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1984/