$100 in 1926 is worth $1,001 in 2001,
because prices increased 900.6% over that period, an average of
3.12% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,001
in 2001
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
900.6%
Average inflation rate
3.12% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,001
Price difference ($100 base)
$901
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2001
177.1
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2001
2.85%
$100 in 1926 → 2001
$1,001
$100 in 2001 → 1926
$9.99
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2001
Between 1926 and 2001, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 177.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 900.6%, which works out to an average of
3.12% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2001: the 1926 dollar
lost 90.0% of its purchasing power over
these 75 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 2001 at the same ratio, 10.01: $1,000 becomes
$10,006, and $10,000 becomes $100,056.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2001
$1.00
$10.01
$5.00
$50.03
$10.00
$100
$20.00
$200
$50.00
$500
$100
$1,001
$500
$5,003
$1,000
$10,006
$5,000
$50,028
$10,000
$100,056
$100,000
$1,000,565
$1,000,000
$10,005,650
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2001
Between 1926 and 2001, food rose the most, up 918.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 391.5%, against 900.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2001, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.12%
$1,001
Food
3.14%
$1,018
Apparel
2.15%
$492
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 2001
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 1926–2001 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
2000–2001
2.85%
2.8%
$1,001
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $169 by
1961, on its way to $1,001 in 2001; 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: 2001
In 2001, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,001; the year's average CPI of 177.1 is the level
behind every 2001 figure on this page.
Inflation fell to 2.8% in 2001 from 3.4% the year before, as a recession that began in March
cut demand and gasoline slid to an average of $1.46 a gallon. The median household earned about
$42,200, roughly flat from 2000, and a new home cost about $175,200. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate 11 times over the year, from 6.5% to 1.75%, the lowest since 1961. After the
September 11 attacks, U.S. stock markets closed for four trading days, and air travel dropped
sharply until the following year. Congress had already passed a $1.35 trillion tax cut in June,
which included rebate checks of up to $600. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the
recession’s end at November, but unemployment kept rising into 2003. A first-class stamp went to
34 cents in January, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15. The Fed’s cuts were the
first step in a long period of very cheap borrowing that would fuel the housing boom.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2001: $100 is worth $1,001 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2001/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2001. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2001/