$100 in 1926 is worth $563 in 1983,
because prices increased 462.7% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$563
in 1983
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
462.7%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$563
Price difference ($100 base)
$463
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1983
99.6
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1983
3.21%
$100 in 1926 → 1983
$563
$100 in 1983 → 1926
$17.77
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1983
Between 1926 and 1983, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 99.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 462.7%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1983: the 1926 dollar
lost 82.2% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1983 at the same ratio, 5.63: $1,000 becomes
$5,627, and $10,000 becomes $56,271.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1983
$1.00
$5.63
$5.00
$28.14
$10.00
$56.27
$20.00
$113
$50.00
$281
$100
$563
$500
$2,814
$1,000
$5,627
$5,000
$28,136
$10,000
$56,271
$100,000
$562,712
$1,000,000
$5,627,119
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1983
Between 1926 and 1983, food rose the most, up 484.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 286.9%, against 462.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1983, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$563
Food
3.15%
$585
Apparel
2.40%
$387
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 1983
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1926–1983 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$466
1980–1983
6.52%
20.9%
$563
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $152 by
1954, on its way to $563 in 1983; 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: 1983
In 1983, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $563; the year's average CPI of 99.6 is the level
behind every 1983 figure on this page.
1983 confirmed that the Volcker disinflation was not a one-year fluke.
Consumer prices rose 3.2% for the year, nearly identical to 1982’s pace and a
fraction of the double-digit rates of 1980 and 1981. With inflation tamed and
interest rates coming down, the economy roared back from the 1981-82
recession: real GDP grew 4.6%, the strongest calendar-year growth since the
1950s, and unemployment fell from its 10.8% peak to 8.3% by December. Housing
and auto sales, both starved of credit during the recession, led the
rebound. In April, Congress and President Reagan enacted the Social Security
Amendments of 1983, a bipartisan rescue of a system projected to run out of
money within months. The law gradually raised the full retirement age from
65 to 67, began taxing benefits for higher-income retirees, and delayed that
year’s cost-of-living adjustment by six months. For a program whose benefits
had been indexed to the CPI since 1975, the amendments were the first major
sign that inflation-proofing Social Security carried a cost Congress could
not simply legislate away. By year’s end, gas averaged $1.16 a gallon and
mailing a letter still cost 20 cents, prices that had barely moved since
1981, a sharp break from the constant increases of the previous decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1983: $100 is worth $563 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1983/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1983. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1983/