During the peak of the Great Depression, the unemployment rate peaked at 24.9% in 1933 — 12.8 million Americans out of a population of 125.6 million — and it was still as high as 17.2% in 1939 ...

The Great Depression was a devastating and prolonged economic depression that followed the crash of the U.S. stock market in 1929. It ended as the Second World War began.

Several factors led to the Great Depression, one of the most severe economic crises in U.S. history. NPR interviewed economists who discussed the causes of the Great Depression.

Known as the Great Depression, Skip to main content. ... Around the time of the Great Depression, the Fed was young and pretty inexperienced, having only been founded the previous decade in 1913.