$100 in 1926 is worth $147 in 1951,
because prices increased 46.9% over that period, an average of
1.55% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$147
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
46.9%
Average inflation rate
1.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$147
Price difference ($100 base)
$46.89
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1926 → 1951
$147
$100 in 1951 → 1926
$68.08
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1951
Between 1926 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 46.9%, which works out to an average of
1.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.68 buys in 1951: the 1926 dollar
lost 31.9% of its purchasing power over
these 25 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.47: $1,000 becomes
$1,469, and $10,000 becomes $14,689.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.47
$5.00
$7.34
$10.00
$14.69
$20.00
$29.38
$50.00
$73.45
$100
$147
$500
$734
$1,000
$1,469
$5,000
$7,345
$10,000
$14,689
$100,000
$146,893
$1,000,000
$1,468,927
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1951
Between 1926 and 1951, apparel rose the most, up 69.5%, while food rose the least, up 65.9%, against 46.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.55%
$147
Apparel
2.13%
$169
Food
2.05%
$166
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1951 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$136
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$147
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $79.66 by
1938, on its way to $147 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $147; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1951: $100 is worth $147 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1951/