$100 in 1926 is worth $587 in 1984,
because prices increased 487.0% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$587
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
487.0%
Average inflation rate
3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$587
Price difference ($100 base)
$487
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1926 → 1984
$587
$100 in 1984 → 1926
$17.04
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1984
Between 1926 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 487.0%, which works out to an average of
3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1984: the 1926 dollar
lost 83.0% of its purchasing power over
these 58 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 1984 at the same ratio, 5.87: $1,000 becomes
$5,870, and $10,000 becomes $58,701.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1984
$1.00
$5.87
$5.00
$29.35
$10.00
$58.70
$20.00
$117
$50.00
$294
$100
$587
$500
$2,935
$1,000
$5,870
$5,000
$29,350
$10,000
$58,701
$100,000
$587,006
$1,000,000
$5,870,056
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1984
Between 1926 and 1984, food rose the most, up 507.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 294.2%, against 487.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.10%
$587
Food
3.16%
$607
Apparel
2.39%
$394
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 1984
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 1926–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$587
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $152 by
1954, on its way to $587 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $587; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1984: $100 is worth $587 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1984/