$100 in 1926 is worth $97.74 in 1943,
because prices declined 2.3% over that period, an average of
0.13% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$97.74
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-2.3%
Average inflation rate
-0.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$97.74
Price difference ($100 base)
-$2.26
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1926 → 1943
$97.74
$100 in 1943 → 1926
$102
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1943
Between 1926 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices declined 2.3%, which works out to an average of
-0.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$1.02 buys in 1943: the 1926 dollar
gained 2.3% in purchasing power over
these 17 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 1943 at the same ratio, 0.98: $1,000 becomes
$977, and $10,000 becomes $9,774.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1943
$1.00
$0.98
$5.00
$4.89
$10.00
$9.77
$20.00
$19.55
$50.00
$48.87
$100
$97.74
$500
$489
$1,000
$977
$5,000
$4,887
$10,000
$9,774
$100,000
$97,740
$1,000,000
$977,401
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1943
Between 1926 and 1943, apparel rose the most, up 7.3%, while food rose the least, up 0.6%, against 2.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.13%
$97.74
Apparel
0.42%
$107
Food
0.03%
$101
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 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1926, at end
1926–1930
-1.44%
-5.6%
$94.35
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$79.10
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$97.74
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $75.71 by
1934, on its way to $97.74 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $97.74; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1943: $100 is worth $97.74 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1943/