$100 in 1926 is worth $251 in 1973,
because prices increased 150.8% over that period, an average of
1.98% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$251
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
150.8%
Average inflation rate
1.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$251
Price difference ($100 base)
$151
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1926 → 1973
$251
$100 in 1973 → 1926
$39.86
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1973
Between 1926 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 150.8%, which works out to an average of
1.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.40 buys in 1973: the 1926 dollar
lost 60.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.51: $1,000 becomes
$2,508, and $10,000 becomes $25,085.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.51
$5.00
$12.54
$10.00
$25.08
$20.00
$50.17
$50.00
$125
$100
$251
$500
$1,254
$1,000
$2,508
$5,000
$12,542
$10,000
$25,085
$100,000
$250,847
$1,000,000
$2,508,475
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1973
Between 1926 and 1973, food rose the most, up 183.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 149.4%, against 150.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.98%
$251
Food
2.24%
$284
Apparel
1.96%
$249
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 1973
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 1926–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$251
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $136 by
1950, on its way to $251 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $251; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1973: $100 is worth $251 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1973/