$100 in 1926 is worth $368 in 1978,
because prices increased 268.4% over that period, an average of
2.54% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$368
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
268.4%
Average inflation rate
2.54% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$368
Price difference ($100 base)
$268
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1926 → 1978
$368
$100 in 1978 → 1926
$27.15
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1978
Between 1926 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 268.4%, which works out to an average of
2.54% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1978: the 1926 dollar
lost 72.9% of its purchasing power over
these 52 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 1978 at the same ratio, 3.68: $1,000 becomes
$3,684, and $10,000 becomes $36,836.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1978
$1.00
$3.68
$5.00
$18.42
$10.00
$36.84
$20.00
$73.67
$50.00
$184
$100
$368
$500
$1,842
$1,000
$3,684
$5,000
$18,418
$10,000
$36,836
$100,000
$368,362
$1,000,000
$3,683,616
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1978
Between 1926 and 1978, food rose the most, up 323.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 214.3%, against 268.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.54%
$368
Food
2.81%
$424
Apparel
2.23%
$314
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$368
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $150 by
1952, on its way to $368 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $368; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1978: $100 is worth $368 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1978/