$100 in 1926 is worth $1,016 in 2002,
because prices increased 916.4% over that period, an average of
3.10% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,016
in 2002
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
916.4%
Average inflation rate
3.10% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,016
Price difference ($100 base)
$916
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2002
179.9
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2002
1.58%
$100 in 1926 → 2002
$1,016
$100 in 2002 → 1926
$9.84
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2002
Between 1926 and 2002, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 179.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 916.4%, which works out to an average of
3.10% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2002: the 1926 dollar
lost 90.2% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2002 at the same ratio, 10.16: $1,000 becomes
$10,164, and $10,000 becomes $101,638.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2002
$1.00
$10.16
$5.00
$50.82
$10.00
$102
$20.00
$203
$50.00
$508
$100
$1,016
$500
$5,082
$1,000
$10,164
$5,000
$50,819
$10,000
$101,638
$100,000
$1,016,384
$1,000,000
$10,163,842
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2002
Between 1926 and 2002, food rose the most, up 936.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 378.8%, against 916.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2002, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.10%
$1,016
Food
3.12%
$1,036
Apparel
2.08%
$479
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 2002
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 1926–2002 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
2000–2002
2.21%
4.5%
$1,016
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $183 by
1966, on its way to $1,016 in 2002; 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: 2002
In 2002, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,016; the year's average CPI of 179.9 is the level
behind every 2002 figure on this page.
The CPI rose 1.6% in 2002, the lowest annual rate of the decade so far, with gasoline down to an
average of $1.36 a gallon and slack in the labor market keeping wage pressure low. The median
household earned about $42,400, and a new home cost roughly $187,600, an increase of about 7%
from the year before as low mortgage rates began to lift housing. The Federal Reserve cut its
policy rate to 1.25% in November. Stocks were moving the other way: after the Enron and WorldCom
scandals, the S&P 500 hit its bear-market low on October 9, about 49% below its March 2000
peak, and Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July to tighten corporate accounting rules.
On January 1, euro banknotes and coins replaced national currencies in 12 European countries. A
first-class stamp rose to 37 cents in June, and the federal minimum wage stayed at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2002: $100 is worth $1,016 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2002/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2002. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2002/