$100 in 1926 is worth $861 in 1995,
because prices increased 761.0% over that period, an average of
3.17% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$861
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
761.0%
Average inflation rate
3.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$861
Price difference ($100 base)
$761
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1926 → 1995
$861
$100 in 1995 → 1926
$11.61
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1995
Between 1926 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 761.0%, which works out to an average of
3.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1995: the 1926 dollar
lost 88.4% of its purchasing power over
these 69 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 1995 at the same ratio, 8.61: $1,000 becomes
$8,610, and $10,000 becomes $86,102.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1995
$1.00
$8.61
$5.00
$43.05
$10.00
$86.10
$20.00
$172
$50.00
$431
$100
$861
$500
$4,305
$1,000
$8,610
$5,000
$43,051
$10,000
$86,102
$100,000
$861,017
$1,000,000
$8,610,169
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1995
Between 1926 and 1995, food rose the most, up 772.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 409.7%, against 761.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.17%
$861
Food
3.19%
$873
Apparel
2.39%
$510
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 1995
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 1926–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$861
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $861 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $861; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1995: $100 is worth $861 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1995/