$100 in 1926 is worth $304 in 1975,
because prices increased 204.0% over that period, an average of
2.29% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$304
in 1975
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
204.0%
Average inflation rate
2.29% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$304
Price difference ($100 base)
$204
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1975
53.8
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1975
9.13%
$100 in 1926 → 1975
$304
$100 in 1975 → 1926
$32.90
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1975
Between 1926 and 1975, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 53.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 204.0%, which works out to an average of
2.29% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.33 buys in 1975: the 1926 dollar
lost 67.1% of its purchasing power over
these 49 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 1975 at the same ratio, 3.04: $1,000 becomes
$3,040, and $10,000 becomes $30,395.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1975
$1.00
$3.04
$5.00
$15.20
$10.00
$30.40
$20.00
$60.79
$50.00
$152
$100
$304
$500
$1,520
$1,000
$3,040
$5,000
$15,198
$10,000
$30,395
$100,000
$303,955
$1,000,000
$3,039,548
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1975
Between 1926 and 1975, food rose the most, up 251.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 179.9%, against 204.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1975, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.29%
$304
Food
2.60%
$352
Apparel
2.12%
$280
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 1975
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.76% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1975 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
1970–1975
6.76%
38.7%
$304
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $136 by
1950, on its way to $304 in 1975; 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: 1975
In 1975, prices rose 9.1% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $304; the year's average CPI of 53.8 is the level
behind every 1975 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 9.1% in 1975, easing slightly from 1974’s
11.0% but still running far above anything the country had experienced before
the decade began. The recession that started in November 1973, the deepest
since the Great Depression, bottomed out that March, yet unemployment kept
climbing through the year and touched 9%, a combination of high inflation and
high joblessness that had no precedent in the postwar data. Vietnam ended
that April 30, when North Vietnamese forces captured Saigon and the last
Americans were evacuated by helicopter from the U.S. embassy roof. Fiscal
strain hit closer to home too: New York City, facing bankruptcy after years
of borrowing to paper over budget gaps, asked Washington for help that
October. President Ford’s initial refusal produced the Daily News headline
“Ford to City: Drop Dead,” though he ultimately signed a federal loan package
that December. Amid the gloom, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft
that April in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to sell a version of the BASIC
programming language for the Altair 8800, one of the first personal
computers sold to hobbyists. A median household earned $11,800 in 1975, a new
home sold for a median $39,300, and first-class postage held at 10 cents,
unchanged since 1974’s increase. Consumer prices stood 443.4%
above their 1913 level, with the decade barely past its
midpoint.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1975: $100 is worth $304 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1975/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1975. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1975/