$100 in 1926 is worth $921 in 1998,
because prices increased 820.9% over that period, an average of
3.13% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$921
in 1998
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
820.9%
Average inflation rate
3.13% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$921
Price difference ($100 base)
$821
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1998
163
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1998
1.56%
$100 in 1926 → 1998
$921
$100 in 1998 → 1926
$10.86
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1998
Between 1926 and 1998, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 163.
Cumulatively, prices increased 820.9%, which works out to an average of
3.13% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1998: the 1926 dollar
lost 89.1% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 1998 at the same ratio, 9.21: $1,000 becomes
$9,209, and $10,000 becomes $92,090.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1998
$1.00
$9.21
$5.00
$46.05
$10.00
$92.09
$20.00
$184
$50.00
$460
$100
$921
$500
$4,605
$1,000
$9,209
$5,000
$46,045
$10,000
$92,090
$100,000
$920,904
$1,000,000
$9,209,040
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1998
Between 1926 and 1998, food rose the most, up 845.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 413.5%, against 820.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1998, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.13%
$921
Food
3.17%
$945
Apparel
2.30%
$514
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 1998
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 1926–1998 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
1990–1998
2.80%
24.7%
$921
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $921 in 1998; 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: 1998
In 1998, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $921; the year's average CPI of 163 is the level
behind every 1998 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $38,900 in 1998, gas averaged just $1.06 a gallon, its
cheapest of the decade, and a new home cost roughly $152,500. Inflation ran at 1.6% for the
year, the lowest of the 1990s, as a glut of crude oil, worsened by weak demand from Asia’s
slowdown, pushed prices below $11 a barrel by December and pulled pump prices down with them.
The calm at home came alongside real turmoil abroad: in August, Russia devalued the ruble and
defaulted on its domestic debt, rattling markets already unsettled by the Asian financial
crisis, and in September the hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management collapsed after its highly
leveraged bets went bad, prompting the Federal Reserve to organize a private-sector bailout by
more than a dozen banks to prevent a disorderly unwinding of its roughly $100 billion in
positions. The Fed also cut interest rates three times that fall, in September, October, and
November, an insurance policy against the global financial turmoil spreading to the U.S.
economy. Cheap oil and a well-timed set of rate cuts left 1998 as a year the U.S. economy
absorbed two foreign financial crises without much of a dent at home.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1998: $100 is worth $921 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1998/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1998. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1998/