$100 in 1924 is worth $845 in 1993,
because prices increased 745.0% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$845
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
745.0%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$845
Price difference ($100 base)
$745
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1924 → 1993
$845
$100 in 1993 → 1924
$11.83
What happened to prices between 1924 and 1993
Between 1924 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 745.0%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1993: the 1924 dollar
lost 88.2% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 1993 at the same ratio, 8.45: $1,000 becomes
$8,450, and $10,000 becomes $84,503.
Amount in 1924
Value in 1993
$1.00
$8.45
$5.00
$42.25
$10.00
$84.50
$20.00
$169
$50.00
$423
$100
$845
$500
$4,225
$1,000
$8,450
$5,000
$42,251
$10,000
$84,503
$100,000
$845,029
$1,000,000
$8,450,292
Inflation by spending category, 1924–1993
Between 1924 and 1993, food rose the most, up 827.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 398.9%, against 745.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$845
Food
3.28%
$927
Apparel
2.36%
$499
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 1993
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 1924–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$764
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$845
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $170 by
1959, on its way to $845 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $845; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 1993: $100 is worth $845 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-1993/