$100 in 1926 is worth $668 in 1988,
because prices increased 568.4% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$668
in 1988
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
568.4%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$668
Price difference ($100 base)
$568
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1988
118.3
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1988
4.14%
$100 in 1926 → 1988
$668
$100 in 1988 → 1926
$14.96
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1988
Between 1926 and 1988, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 118.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 568.4%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.15 buys in 1988: the 1926 dollar
lost 85.0% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1988 at the same ratio, 6.68: $1,000 becomes
$6,684, and $10,000 becomes $66,836.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1988
$1.00
$6.68
$5.00
$33.42
$10.00
$66.84
$20.00
$134
$50.00
$334
$100
$668
$500
$3,342
$1,000
$6,684
$5,000
$33,418
$10,000
$66,836
$100,000
$668,362
$1,000,000
$6,683,616
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1988
Between 1926 and 1988, food rose the most, up 595.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 345.6%, against 568.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1988, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$668
Food
3.18%
$695
Apparel
2.44%
$446
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 1988
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 1926–1988 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
1980–1988
4.62%
43.6%
$668
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $154 by
1956, on its way to $668 in 1988; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1988
In 1988, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $668; the year's average CPI of 118.3 is the level
behind every 1988 figure on this page.
By 1988, the economic expansion that began in the ashes of the 1981-82
recession was in its sixth year, and the Federal Reserve was watching for
signs it had run too long. Inflation rose to 4.1%, up from 3.6% the year
before, while unemployment fell to its lowest level since 1974. Alan
Greenspan’s Fed responded by raising the federal funds rate through the
year, from about 6.5% to 8.5%, trying to cool demand before prices
accelerated the way they had in the 1970s. Households still felt the
difference between this expansion and the last one: gas held near 90 cents
a gallon, almost exactly its 1987 price, and median household income rose
to roughly $27,200. The one price that moved was postage, which rose from
22 to 25 cents in April, the fourth increase of the decade but a far
gentler pace than the string of increases in the late 1970s and early
1980s. In November, Vice President George H.W. Bush won the presidency on
the strength of the expansion, promising in his nomination speech to hold
the line on taxes. Both the boom and that pledge would run into trouble
within two years, as the Fed’s rate increases helped tip the economy toward
the 1990-91 recession.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1988: $100 is worth $668 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1988/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1988. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1988/