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The 1920s Statistics

The 1920s Statistics

By the Numbers

United States Population

Population in 1920: 105.7 million
Population in 1930: 122.8 million1

Census year in which urban population surpassed rural population for the first time in American history: 1920

Percentage of homes with electricity in 1920: 35%
Percentage of homes with electricity  in 1929: 68%

Percentage of farms with electricity in 1920: 2%
Percentage of farms with electricity in 1929: 9%2

Average per capita income for all Americans in 1929: $750
Average per capita income for American farmers in 1929: $2733

The Crash and the Great Depression

Number of millionaires in America at time of stock market peak in 1929: 25,000–35,000
Number of millionaires in America at time of stock market bottom in 1932: 5,0006

Percentage of Americans who owned stock at time of 1929 Crash: less than 1%

1929 ratio of the incomes of the top 0.1% of Americans, to the incomes of the bottom 42%: 1:17

Dow Jones Industrial Averages

November 1919: 119.62
August 1921: 62.57
September 1929: 381.17
November 1929: 198.69
July 1932: 41.224

Year in which Dow Jones Industrial Average first surpassed the level of its 1929 peak: 19545

Wholesale Price of Wheat

1920: $2.45 per bushel
1921: $1.30 per bushel
1932: 49 cents per bushel

Wholesale Price of Cotton

1920: 42 cents per pound
1921: 10 cents per pound
1932: 5 cents per pound