$100 in 1926 is worth $126 in 1947,
because prices increased 26.0% over that period, an average of
1.11% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$126
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
26.0%
Average inflation rate
1.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$126
Price difference ($100 base)
$25.99
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1926 → 1947
$126
$100 in 1947 → 1926
$79.37
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1947
Between 1926 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 26.0%, which works out to an average of
1.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.79 buys in 1947: the 1926 dollar
lost 20.6% of its purchasing power over
these 21 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.26: $1,000 becomes
$1,260, and $10,000 becomes $12,599.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.26
$5.00
$6.30
$10.00
$12.60
$20.00
$25.20
$50.00
$62.99
$100
$126
$500
$630
$1,000
$1,260
$5,000
$6,299
$10,000
$12,599
$100,000
$125,989
$1,000,000
$1,259,887
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1947
Between 1926 and 1947, apparel rose the most, up 54.1%, while food rose the least, up 41.8%, against 26.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.11%
$126
Apparel
2.08%
$154
Food
1.68%
$142
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1947 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
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$126
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $78.53 by
1936, on its way to $126 in 1947; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $126; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1947: $100 is worth $126 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1947/