$100 in 1926 is worth $236 in 1972,
because prices increased 136.2% over that period, an average of
1.89% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$236
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
136.2%
Average inflation rate
1.89% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$236
Price difference ($100 base)
$136
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1926 → 1972
$236
$100 in 1972 → 1926
$42.34
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1972
Between 1926 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 136.2%, which works out to an average of
1.89% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1972: the 1926 dollar
lost 57.7% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1972 at the same ratio, 2.36: $1,000 becomes
$2,362, and $10,000 becomes $23,616.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.36
$5.00
$11.81
$10.00
$23.62
$20.00
$47.23
$50.00
$118
$100
$236
$500
$1,181
$1,000
$2,362
$5,000
$11,808
$10,000
$23,616
$100,000
$236,158
$1,000,000
$2,361,582
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1972
Between 1926 and 1972, food rose the most, up 147.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 140.5%, against 136.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.89%
$236
Food
1.99%
$248
Apparel
1.93%
$241
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 1972
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 1926–1972 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
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$236
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $136 by
1948, on its way to $236 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $236; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1972: $100 is worth $236 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1972/