$100 in 1926 is worth $941 in 1999,
because prices increased 841.2% over that period, an average of
3.12% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$941
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
841.2%
Average inflation rate
3.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$941
Price difference ($100 base)
$841
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1926 → 1999
$941
$100 in 1999 → 1926
$10.62
What happened to prices between 1926 and 1999
Between 1926 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 841.2%, which works out to an average of
3.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1999: the 1926 dollar
lost 89.4% of its purchasing power over
these 73 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.41: $1,000 becomes
$9,412, and $10,000 becomes $94,124.
Amount in 1926
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.41
$5.00
$47.06
$10.00
$94.12
$20.00
$188
$50.00
$471
$100
$941
$500
$4,706
$1,000
$9,412
$5,000
$47,062
$10,000
$94,124
$100,000
$941,243
$1,000,000
$9,412,429
Inflation by spending category, 1926–1999
Between 1926 and 1999, food rose the most, up 865.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 406.9%, against 841.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.12%
$941
Food
3.15%
$965
Apparel
2.25%
$507
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 1999
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 1926–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$941
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $941 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $941; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 1999: $100 is worth $941 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-1999/