$100 in 1924 is worth $1,255 in 2009,
because prices increased 1154.6% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1924 has
the same buying power as
$1,255
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1154.6%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,255
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,155
CPI in 1924
17.1
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1924
0.00%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1924 → 2009
$1,255
$100 in 2009 → 1924
$7.97
What happened to prices between 1924 and 2009
Between 1924 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.1 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1154.6%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1924 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2009: the 1924 dollar
lost 92.0% of its purchasing power over
these 85 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 2009 at the same ratio, 12.55: $1,000 becomes
$12,546, and $10,000 becomes $125,460.
Amount in 1924
Value in 2009
$1.00
$12.55
$5.00
$62.73
$10.00
$125
$20.00
$251
$50.00
$627
$100
$1,255
$500
$6,273
$1,000
$12,546
$5,000
$62,730
$10,000
$125,460
$100,000
$1,254,602
$1,000,000
$12,546,023
Inflation by spending category, 1924–2009
Between 1924 and 2009, food rose the most, up 1333.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 348.1%, against 1154.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1924
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1924 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$1,255
Food
3.18%
$1,434
Apparel
1.78%
$448
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 2009
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 1924–2009 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$1,007
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,255
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1924
$100 from 1924 had already become $181 by
1964, on its way to $1,255 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1924 had the buying
power of $1,255; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1924 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,255 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1924 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1924-to-2009/