$100 in 1926 is worth $410 in 1979,
because prices increased 310.2% over that period, an average of
2.70% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$410
in 1979
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
310.2%
Average inflation rate
2.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$410
Price difference ($100 base)
$310
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1979
72.6
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1979
11.35%
$100 in 1926 → 1979
$410
$100 in 1979 → 1926
$24.38
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1979
Between 1926 and 1979, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 72.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 310.2%, which works out to an average of
2.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.24 buys in 1979: the 1926 dollar
lost 75.6% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1979 at the same ratio, 4.10: $1,000 becomes
$4,102, and $10,000 becomes $41,017.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1979
$1.00
$4.10
$5.00
$20.51
$10.00
$41.02
$20.00
$82.03
$50.00
$205
$100
$410
$500
$2,051
$1,000
$4,102
$5,000
$20,508
$10,000
$41,017
$100,000
$410,169
$1,000,000
$4,101,695
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1979
Between 1926 and 1979, food rose the most, up 370.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 227.8%, against 310.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1979, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.70%
$410
Food
2.96%
$470
Apparel
2.27%
$328
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 1979
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.21% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1979 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
1970–1979
7.21%
87.1%
$410
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $150 by
1952, on its way to $410 in 1979; 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: 1979
In 1979, prices rose 11.3% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $410; the year's average CPI of 72.6 is the level
behind every 1979 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 11.3% in 1979, the fastest pace since 1947 and the
decade’s second bout of double-digit inflation after 1974’s
11.0%. The trigger was familiar: the Iranian Revolution that January halted
Iran’s oil exports, and panic buying amplified the shortage, sending crude
prices sharply higher over the year and motorists back into gas lines, with
some states reviving the odd-even rationing last seen in 1974. Paul Volcker,
appointed Federal Reserve chairman that August, responded with a strategy
shift announced that October: the Fed would target the money supply directly
and let interest rates rise as high as necessary to break inflation, whatever
the short-term cost. That cost would arrive as a deep recession in 1981-82,
but by year’s end 1979 had already delivered enough turmoil on its own. A
reactor at the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
suffered a partial core meltdown that March 28, the worst commercial nuclear
accident in U.S. history, and on November 4, militants in Tehran stormed the
U.S. embassy and took 52 Americans hostage, beginning a 444-day crisis that
consumed the rest of Carter’s presidency. A median household earned $16,461
in 1979, a new home sold for a median $62,900, and gas jumped to 86 cents a
gallon. Consumer prices finished the decade 97.8% above where they stood in
1969, very nearly doubling in ten years, and stood 633.3%
above their 1913 level. The 1970s had opened with inflation
cooling from the 1969 spike and closed with prices rising faster than at any
point since 1947, setting up the Great
Inflation’s final act in 1980.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1979: $100 is worth $410 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1979/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1979. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1979/