$100 in 1926 is worth $793 in 1992,
because prices increased 692.7% over that period, an average of
3.19% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$793
in 1992
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
692.7%
Average inflation rate
3.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$793
Price difference ($100 base)
$693
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1992
140.3
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1992
3.01%
$100 in 1926 → 1992
$793
$100 in 1992 → 1926
$12.62
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1992
Between 1926 and 1992, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 140.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 692.7%, which works out to an average of
3.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.13 buys in 1992: the 1926 dollar
lost 87.4% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 1992 at the same ratio, 7.93: $1,000 becomes
$7,927, and $10,000 becomes $79,266.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1992
$1.00
$7.93
$5.00
$39.63
$10.00
$79.27
$20.00
$159
$50.00
$396
$100
$793
$500
$3,963
$1,000
$7,927
$5,000
$39,633
$10,000
$79,266
$100,000
$792,655
$1,000,000
$7,926,554
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1992
Between 1926 and 1992, food rose the most, up 711.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 409.3%, against 692.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1992, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.19%
$793
Food
3.22%
$811
Apparel
2.50%
$509
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 1992
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 1926–1992 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$738
1990–1992
3.61%
7.3%
$793
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $793 in 1992; 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: 1992
In 1992, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $793; the year's average CPI of 140.3 is the level
behind every 1992 figure on this page.
1992 was the year the recovery finally showed up in the numbers, if not yet in hiring. The
median household earned about $30,600, gas averaged $1.13 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly
$121,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, its calmest reading since the mid-1980s, as energy
prices stayed well below their 1990 peak and a slack labor market kept a lid on wages and prices
alike. The Federal Reserve kept cutting its policy rate through the year, reaching about 3% by
September, the lowest in decades, trying to jump-start hiring more than a year after the 1990-91
recession officially ended. The sluggish job market became the defining issue of the November
election, and Bill Clinton unseated incumbent George H.W. Bush, whose approval ratings had
fallen sharply from their post-Gulf War highs. In August, Hurricane Andrew tore through South
Florida, the costliest U.S. hurricane on record at the time, causing tens of billions of dollars
in damage and reshaping how insurers priced catastrophe risk for years afterward. Falling rates,
a costly hurricane, and an election fought over jobs defined a recovery that showed up in the
data well before it showed up in most paychecks.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1992: $100 is worth $793 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1992/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1992. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1992/