$100 in 1926 is worth $151 in 1953,
because prices increased 50.8% over that period, an average of
1.53% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$151
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
50.8%
Average inflation rate
1.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$151
Price difference ($100 base)
$50.85
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1926 → 1953
$151
$100 in 1953 → 1926
$66.29
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1953
Between 1926 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 50.8%, which works out to an average of
1.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1953: the 1926 dollar
lost 33.7% of its purchasing power over
these 27 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.51: $1,000 becomes
$1,508, and $10,000 becomes $15,085.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.51
$5.00
$7.54
$10.00
$15.08
$20.00
$30.17
$50.00
$75.42
$100
$151
$500
$754
$1,000
$1,508
$5,000
$7,542
$10,000
$15,085
$100,000
$150,847
$1,000,000
$1,508,475
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1953
Between 1926 and 1953, food rose the most, up 66.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 66.4%, against 50.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.53%
$151
Food
1.91%
$166
Apparel
1.90%
$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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$151
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $78.53 by
1939, on its way to $151 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $151; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $151 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1953/