$100 in 1919 is worth $101 in 1927,
because prices increased 0.6% over that period, an average of
0.07% a year.
$100 in 1919 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1927
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.6%
Average inflation rate
0.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.58
CPI in 1919
17.3
CPI in 1927
17.4
Inflation in 1919
14.57%
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
$100 in 1919 → 1927
$101
$100 in 1927 → 1919
$99.43
What happened to prices between 1919 and 1927
Between 1919 and 1927, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.3 to 17.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.6%, which works out to an average of
0.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1919 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1927: the 1919 dollar
lost 0.6% of its purchasing power over
these 8 years.
The fighting in Europe ended in November 1918, but American prices kept
climbing through 1919 almost as fast as they had during the war itself,
rising 14.6% for the year. Wartime price and production controls were being
dismantled, millions of soldiers were returning to the civilian labor
market, and demand that had been held back for years ran into supply that
had not caught up, a combination that kept the cost of living rising even
with the guns silent. Workers, whose pay had fallen behind three straight
years of double-digit inflation, pushed back: a general strike shut down
Seattle in February, Boston’s police force walked out in September, and a
nationwide steel strike that same month drew in roughly 350,000 workers and
ran into the following January. One price did fall that year: first-class
postage reverted to 2 cents on July 1, ending the wartime 3-cent rate that
had funded part of the war effort since late 1917. By year’s end, prices had
risen close to 75% since the CPI’s 1913 starting point,
compressing more than a decade of typical peacetime inflation into six years
of war and its aftermath.
Every 1919 amount converts to 1927 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,006, and $10,000 becomes $10,058.
Amount in 1919
Value in 1927
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.03
$10.00
$10.06
$20.00
$20.12
$50.00
$50.29
$100
$101
$500
$503
$1,000
$1,006
$5,000
$5,029
$10,000
$10,058
$100,000
$100,578
$1,000,000
$1,005,780
Inflation by spending category, 1919–1927
Every category fell between 1919 and 1927: apparel the most, down 30.1%, and food the least, down 11.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1919
spending costs in 1927, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1919 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.07%
$101
Food
-1.56%
$88.17
Apparel
-4.38%
$69.89
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1919: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1919 to 1927
Prices climbed fastest in the 1910s, averaging 15.61% a year, and fell in the 1920s (2.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1919–1927 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1919, at end
1919–1920
15.61%
15.6%
$116
1920–1927
-1.97%
-13.0%
$101
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1919
$100 from 1919 had already become $98.84 by
1923, on its way to $101 in 1927; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 15.6% in 1920, and prices fell 10.5% in 1921, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1927, prices fell 1.7% and $100 from 1919 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 17.4 is the level
behind every 1927 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1919 to 1927: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1927/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1919 to 1927. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1919-to-1927/