How the world has changed since Jimmy Carter was born in 1924

Jimmy Carter dead at 100

The 39th President of the United States has died at 100. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution confirmed the news with a post on X, stating the son of the former president said his father had died around 3:40 p.m. ET in his Plains home.

When former President Jimmy Carter was born Oct. 1, 1924, the life expectancy for American males was 58. That was a hundred years ago, and a lot has changed in the century since Carter’s birth.

Carter died Sunday, Dec. 29, in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, after entering hospice care Feb. 18, 2023. He was 100 years old – the longest-living president in U.S. history.

Here’s what else has changed since the 39th president was born:

US population triples

The U.S. population has tripled.

The U.S. has about 331 million residents now; there were about 114 million in 1924 and 220 million when Carter took office in 1977.

The world population has quadrupled, from about 1.9 billion to 8.02 billion. It had already more than doubled to 4.36 billion by the time Carter became president.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter in October 2005 (Credit: The Carter Center)

That boom has not reached Plains, Georgia, where Carter and wife Rosalynn were born and lived until their deaths. The tiny south Georgia town comprised fewer than 500 people in the 1920s and has 775 or so today, with much of the local economy revolving around its most famous residents.

3-bedroom home sold for $2,000

There was no Amazon Prime in 1924, but you could order a build-it-yourself house from a catalog. Sears Roebuck Gladstone’s three-bedroom model went for $2,025 — slightly less than the average worker’s annual income. As of May 2024, the median price for buying a home in the U.S. was roughly $400,000. According to USA Today, the average U.S. annual salary at the end of 2023 was $59,384.

Walmart didn’t exist, but locally-owned general stores served the same purpose. Ballpark prices: loaf of bread, 9 cents; gallon of milk, 54 cents; gallon of gas, 11 cents. Today, those items would cost you, on average, $2, $3.89 and $3.43, respectively.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter shaking hands w/ children at Indonesian elections June 5-9, 1999. (Credit: The Carter Center)

Inflation and spiking gas prices, incidentally, helped drive Carter from office, though the average gallon in 1980, Carter’s last full year, was $2.66 when adjusted for inflation.

When Carter was born, the stock market was just beginning a rapid rise that led to the 1929 crash.

Prohibition

Prohibition had been in effect for four years when Carter was born and wouldn’t be lifted until he was 9 years old. The Carters were never prodigious drinkers, famously serving only wine at state dinners.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in the Middle East in 1979 (Credit: The Carter Center)

Carter’s younger brother Billy, who owned a Plains gas station and died in 1988, had different tastes, even marketing his own brand, Billy Beer, once Carter became president. News sources at the time reported that the presidential sibling snagged a $50,000 annual licensing fee from one brewer. That would be about $215,000 in 2019, measured by consumer price index inflation. The president’s annual salary at the time was $200,000.

The average retail price for a six-pack of beer during Jimmy Carter’s first year in office was $2.65. It’s about $9 today.

Debt counter

All but two presidents since 1900 have contributed to the national debt, according to USA Today.

The Times Square debt clock didn’t debut until Carter was in his early 60s and out of the White House. But for those counting America’s $34 trillion debt, Carter doesn’t merit much mention, even considering he served only one term.

His cumulative debt: Less than $300 billion, leaving the total debt below $1 trillion.

From Naval Academy to Commander-in-Chief

Carter is the only graduate of the United States Naval Academy to become commander in chief. He’s also the only military academy graduate president who wasn’t a wartime commander: West Point alumni Ulysses S. Grant and Dwight Eisenhower led U.S. military efforts in the Civil War and World War II, respectively.

The first year the Naval Academy included women was 1976, when Carter was elected. Last November, a month after Carter reached 94, New Jersey’s Mikie Sherrill (Class of ’94) and Virginia’s Elaine Loria (Class of ’97) became the first women Naval Academy graduates elected to Congress.

Other presidents

Carter lived through a third of all U.S. presidencies: nine before he was president, seven since. The man Carter beat — Gerald Ford — and the man who defeated him — Ronald Reagan — also lived into their 90s. Bush and John Adams are the only others who have done so.