$100 in 1926 is worth $837 in 1994,
because prices increased 737.3% over that period, an average of
3.17% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$837
in 1994
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
737.3%
Average inflation rate
3.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$837
Price difference ($100 base)
$737
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1994
148.2
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1994
2.56%
$100 in 1926 → 1994
$837
$100 in 1994 → 1926
$11.94
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1994
Between 1926 and 1994, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 148.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 737.3%, which works out to an average of
3.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1994: the 1926 dollar
lost 88.1% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1994 at the same ratio, 8.37: $1,000 becomes
$8,373, and $10,000 becomes $83,729.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1994
$1.00
$8.37
$5.00
$41.86
$10.00
$83.73
$20.00
$167
$50.00
$419
$100
$837
$500
$4,186
$1,000
$8,373
$5,000
$41,864
$10,000
$83,729
$100,000
$837,288
$1,000,000
$8,372,881
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1994
Between 1926 and 1994, food rose the most, up 748.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 415.1%, against 737.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1994, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.17%
$837
Food
3.20%
$849
Apparel
2.44%
$515
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 1994
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 1926–1994 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
1990–1994
3.19%
13.4%
$837
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $837 in 1994; 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: 1994
In 1994, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $837; the year's average CPI of 148.2 is the level
behind every 1994 figure on this page.
Gas averaged $1.11 a gallon in 1994, a new home cost roughly $130,000, and the median household
earned about $32,300. Inflation ran at 2.6% for the year, the calmest reading since the
mid-1980s, even as the Federal Reserve spent the year raising interest rates precisely to keep
it that way. Chair Alan Greenspan’s Fed lifted the federal funds rate from 3% to 5.5% over six
moves, a preemptive tightening campaign meant to head off inflation before it built rather than
react to it after the fact. The bond market, unprepared for such a rapid climb, sold off
sharply, and the higher rates rippled into places few had expected: Orange County, California,
whose investment pool had bet heavily on rates staying low, filed for bankruptcy in December
after losing an estimated $1.7 billion, the largest municipal bankruptcy in the country’s
history at the time. On the trade front, NAFTA took effect January 1, phasing out tariffs on
thousands of goods moving between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, the start of a schedule that
would eliminate most remaining barriers over the following decade. It was a year that showed
inflation control could have its own costs, paid out in the bond market and, in Orange County’s
case, a bankruptcy court.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1994: $100 is worth $837 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1994/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1994. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1994/