$100 in 1926 is worth $973 in 2000,
because prices increased 872.9% over that period, an average of
3.12% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$973
in 2000
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
872.9%
Average inflation rate
3.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$973
Price difference ($100 base)
$873
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2000
172.2
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2000
3.36%
$100 in 1926 → 2000
$973
$100 in 2000 → 1926
$10.28
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2000
Between 1926 and 2000, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 172.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 872.9%, which works out to an average of
3.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2000: the 1926 dollar
lost 89.7% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 2000 at the same ratio, 9.73: $1,000 becomes
$9,729, and $10,000 becomes $97,288.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2000
$1.00
$9.73
$5.00
$48.64
$10.00
$97.29
$20.00
$195
$50.00
$486
$100
$973
$500
$4,864
$1,000
$9,729
$5,000
$48,644
$10,000
$97,288
$100,000
$972,881
$1,000,000
$9,728,814
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2000
Between 1926 and 2000, food rose the most, up 887.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 400.4%, against 872.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2000, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.12%
$973
Food
3.14%
$987
Apparel
2.20%
$500
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 2000
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 1926–2000 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$973
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $973 in 2000; 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: 2000
In 2000, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $973; the year's average CPI of 172.2 is the level
behind every 2000 figure on this page.
Inflation ran at 3.4% in 2000, the highest annual rate since 1991, as an economy growing
above 4% and a rise in oil prices pushed the CPI up. The median household earned about
$42,100, gas averaged $1.51 a gallon, and a new home cost roughly $169,000. The Federal
Reserve had raised interest rates six times since mid-1999 and stopped at 6.5% in May. By
then the stock market had already turned: the Nasdaq hit its record of 5,048 on March 10 and
lost about 39% of its value by December. Consumer prices did not reflect the slowdown yet,
which is why the Fed held rates high through the year even as technology companies began to
fail. In October, Congress granted China permanent normal trade relations, a decision that
would help hold down the price of manufactured goods for years. A first-class stamp cost 33
cents and the federal minimum wage was $5.15. The recession of 2001 brought inflation back
down.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2000: $100 is worth $973 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2000/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2000. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2000/