$100 in 1926 is worth $886 in 1996,
because prices increased 786.4% over that period, an average of
3.17% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$886
in 1996
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
786.4%
Average inflation rate
3.17% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$886
Price difference ($100 base)
$786
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1996
156.9
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1996
2.95%
$100 in 1926 → 1996
$886
$100 in 1996 → 1926
$11.28
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1996
Between 1926 and 1996, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 156.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 786.4%, which works out to an average of
3.17% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1996: the 1926 dollar
lost 88.7% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 1996 at the same ratio, 8.86: $1,000 becomes
$8,864, and $10,000 becomes $88,644.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1996
$1.00
$8.86
$5.00
$44.32
$10.00
$88.64
$20.00
$177
$50.00
$443
$100
$886
$500
$4,432
$1,000
$8,864
$5,000
$44,322
$10,000
$88,644
$100,000
$886,441
$1,000,000
$8,864,407
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1996
Between 1926 and 1996, food rose the most, up 801.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 408.5%, against 786.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1996, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.17%
$886
Food
3.19%
$902
Apparel
2.35%
$508
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 1996
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 1926–1996 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
1990–1996
3.09%
20.0%
$886
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $886 in 1996; 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: 1996
In 1996, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $886; the year's average CPI of 156.9 is the level
behind every 1996 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $35,500 in 1996, gas averaged $1.23 a gallon, up noticeably
from the mid-decade lull, and a new home cost roughly $140,000. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the
year, ticking back up from 1995 as energy prices firmed. Washington passed two of the decade’s
more consequential laws that year: in February, the Telecommunications Act rewrote the rules for
phone, cable, and broadcast media for the first time since 1934, opening local markets to
competition and easing ownership limits; in August, a welfare overhaul ended the federal
guarantee of cash assistance, replacing it with block grants to states and time limits on
benefits. In October, the federal minimum wage rose to $4.75 an hour, its first increase in five
years and the opening step of a two-part law that would take it to $5.15 the following
September. Two sweeping new laws and a minimum wage finally on the move again made 1996 a year
that changed more about how the economy was governed than about how fast prices moved.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1996: $100 is worth $886 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1996/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1996. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1996/