The 1920s Economy: A Statistical Portrait

Industry/Agriculture/Electric Power/Economic Concentration/Business Failures/ Distribution of Wealth/Advertising/Consumer Credit

Industry

    Percentage Increase, 1922-28

         Industrial Production: 70%

                Gross National Product: 40%

                Per Capita Income: 30% 

                Output per factory man hour: 75%

                 Corporate Profits:  62% (1923-1929)

Electric Power

           Percentage Increase, 1899-1929:  331%

               Percentage of American Industries powered by electricity, 1929: 50%

Advertising

                    Total Spending

                    Pre World War I:  $300-400 Million a year

                    1927: $1.5 Billion/ year

                    1929: $1.8 Billion/ year

                    1927 Spending

                    Newspapers: $690 Million

                    Direct Mail:    $400 Million

                    Magazines:    $210 Million

                    Billboards:      $  75 Million

                    Radio:             $    7 Million

Consumer Credit

                    1925:  $1.38 Billion (Consumer Credit outstanding)

                    1927:  15% of all consumer durables bought on installment payments
                               60% of automobiles bought on installment payments
                               80% of radios bought on installment payments

                    1929: $3 Billion (Consumer Credit outstanding)
                              $7 Billion (Total Consumer Goods purchased on Credit)

Economic Concentration, 1929

                Percentage of  Banks Controlled by Top 1% of Banking Corporations: 46%

                Percentage of industry controlled by top 200 Corporations: 50%

                Percentage of industry controlled by top 600 Corporations: 65%

                Percentage of corporate wealth controlled by top 200 Corporations:  49%

                Percentage of all wealth controlled by top 200 Corporations: 22%

Business Failures

                Number of business failures in 1926: 22,000

                Number of banks in the United States, 1921: 31,000

                Number of bank failures, 1921-1929: 7,000

Workers

    Percentage Increase, 1923-29

            Worker's incomes:    11%           

               Real Earnings (for employed wage earners)  22%

               Average Work Week: -4%

 

    Minimum income  deemed necessary for a decent family standard of living: $2500  

    Percentage of American families with incomes under $2500 in 1929: 71%

   

 

Agriculture

         Farm Production in 1919: $21.4 billion

              Farm Production in 1929:  $11.8 billion

                  Percentage of national income held by farmers in 1919: 16%

              Percentage of national income held by farmers in 1929: 9%

               Number of Farms Forced off the land in 1929: 435,000

               

Distribution of Wealth

     Rise in per capita income for top 1% of population, 1920-1929: 75%

      Rise in per capita income for nation as a whole: 9%

      Percentage of American Families with no savings: 80%

      Percentage of savings held by top .1% of Americans: 34%

      Percentage of savings held by top 2.3% of Americans: 67%