$100 in 1926 is worth $163 in 1958,
because prices increased 63.3% over that period, an average of
1.54% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$163
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
63.3%
Average inflation rate
1.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$163
Price difference ($100 base)
$63.28
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1926 → 1958
$163
$100 in 1958 → 1926
$61.25
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1958
Between 1926 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 63.3%, which works out to an average of
1.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1958: the 1926 dollar
lost 38.8% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.63: $1,000 becomes
$1,633, and $10,000 becomes $16,328.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.63
$5.00
$8.16
$10.00
$16.33
$20.00
$32.66
$50.00
$81.64
$100
$163
$500
$816
$1,000
$1,633
$5,000
$8,164
$10,000
$16,328
$100,000
$163,277
$1,000,000
$1,632,768
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1958
Between 1926 and 1958, food rose the most, up 77.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 72.2%, against 63.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.54%
$163
Food
1.81%
$178
Apparel
1.71%
$172
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 1958
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 1926–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$163
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $92.09 by
1942, on its way to $163 in 1958; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $163; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1958: $100 is worth $163 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1958/