$100 in 1924 is worth $725 in 1989,
because prices increased 625.1% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$725
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
625.1%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$725
Price difference ($100 base)
$625
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1924 → 1989
$725
$100 in 1989 → 1924
$13.79
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1989
Between 1924 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 625.1%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1989: the 1924 dollar
lost 86.2% of its purchasing power over
these 65 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 1989 at the same ratio, 7.25: $1,000 becomes
$7,251, and $10,000 becomes $72,515.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1989
$1.00
$7.25
$5.00
$36.26
$10.00
$72.51
$20.00
$145
$50.00
$363
$100
$725
$500
$3,626
$1,000
$7,251
$5,000
$36,257
$10,000
$72,515
$100,000
$725,146
$1,000,000
$7,251,462
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1989
Between 1924 and 1989, food rose the most, up 723.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 342.5%, against 625.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$725
Food
3.30%
$823
Apparel
2.31%
$443
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 1989
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 1924–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$725
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $157 by
1954, on its way to $725 in 1989; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $725; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1989: $100 is worth $725 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1989/