$100 in 1926 is worth $229 in 1971,
because prices increased 128.8% over that period, an average of
1.86% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$229
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
128.8%
Average inflation rate
1.86% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$229
Price difference ($100 base)
$129
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1926 → 1971
$229
$100 in 1971 → 1926
$43.70
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1971
Between 1926 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 128.8%, which works out to an average of
1.86% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.44 buys in 1971: the 1926 dollar
lost 56.3% of its purchasing power over
these 45 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.29: $1,000 becomes
$2,288, and $10,000 becomes $22,881.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.29
$5.00
$11.44
$10.00
$22.88
$20.00
$45.76
$50.00
$114
$100
$229
$500
$1,144
$1,000
$2,288
$5,000
$11,441
$10,000
$22,881
$100,000
$228,814
$1,000,000
$2,288,136
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1971
Between 1926 and 1971, food rose the most, up 137.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 135.9%, against 128.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.86%
$229
Food
1.94%
$238
Apparel
1.93%
$236
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 1971
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 1926–1971 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$167
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$219
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$229
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $136 by
1948, on its way to $229 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $229; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1971: $100 is worth $229 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1971/