$100 in 1926 is worth $77.40 in 1932,
because prices declined 22.6% over that period, an average of
4.18% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$77.40
in 1932
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-22.6%
Average inflation rate
-4.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$77.40
Price difference ($100 base)
-$22.60
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1932
13.7
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1932
-9.87%
$100 in 1926 → 1932
$77.40
$100 in 1932 → 1926
$129
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1932
Between 1926 and 1932, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 22.6%, which works out to an average of
-4.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$1.29 buys in 1932: the 1926 dollar
gained 29.2% in purchasing power over
these 6 years.
Consumer prices rose 1.1% in 1926, a third straight year of mild inflation
and part of the price stability that defined the middle of the decade.
Florida’s real estate boom, which had peaked the previous year on
speculative buying of undeveloped land, ended abruptly that September when
the Great Miami Hurricane made landfall near the city, killing hundreds and
wrecking the market for land whose value had rested on continued
speculation rather than anything underneath it. In Detroit, Henry Ford moved
his company to a five-day, 40-hour work week without cutting pay, a break
from the standard six-day schedule that other large employers would
gradually adopt over the following decades; Ford argued publicly that
workers with more leisure time would also become better customers for the
cars his factories built. Consumer prices remained low enough by historical
standards that a first-class stamp still cost just 2 cents, the same price
it had held since mid-1919.
Every 1926 amount converts to 1932 at the same ratio, 0.77: $1,000 becomes
$774, and $10,000 becomes $7,740.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1932
$1.00
$0.77
$5.00
$3.87
$10.00
$7.74
$20.00
$15.48
$50.00
$38.70
$100
$77.40
$500
$387
$1,000
$774
$5,000
$3,870
$10,000
$7,740
$100,000
$77,401
$1,000,000
$774,011
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1932
Every category fell between 1926 and 1932: food the most, down 37.1%, and apparel the least, down 24.7%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1932, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
-4.18%
$77.40
Apparel
-4.62%
$75.29
Food
-7.43%
$62.94
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1926: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1926 to 1932
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (9.4% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1932 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1926, at end
1926–1930
-1.44%
-5.6%
$94.35
1930–1932
-9.43%
-18.0%
$77.40
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $96.61 by
1929, on its way to $77.40 in 1932; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 0.0% in 1929, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1932, prices fell 9.9% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $77.40; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1932 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the steepest single-year drop in the
CPI’s history to that point and the third straight year of decline following
1930 and 1931. Wages, farm incomes, and
industrial output all kept falling, and Congress tried to arrest the credit
collapse by creating the Reconstruction Finance Corporation that January,
capitalized at $500 million with authority to borrow up to $1.5 billion to
lend directly to banks, railroads, and other struggling businesses. Relief
did not reach ordinary households as quickly. That summer, tens of thousands
of World War I veterans and their families camped in Washington demanding
early payment of a service bonus not due until 1945; in July, U.S. Army
troops under General Douglas MacArthur forcibly dispersed the encampment, an
episode that badly damaged the Hoover administration’s standing months
before an election it was already losing. Voters delivered their verdict on
November 8, electing Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide over the
incumbent Hoover on a promise of relief and a “new deal for the American
people.” Roosevelt would not take office until the following March, leaving
a long and difficult transition during the depths of the crisis. First-class
postage rose from 2 cents to 3 cents on July 6, the first change to the rate
since 1919.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1932: $100 is worth $77.40 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1932/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1932. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1932/