$100 in 1926 is worth $1,139 in 2006,
because prices increased 1039.0% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,139
in 2006
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1039.0%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,139
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,039
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2006
201.6
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2006
3.23%
$100 in 1926 → 2006
$1,139
$100 in 2006 → 1926
$8.78
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2006
Between 1926 and 2006, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 201.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1039.0%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2006: the 1926 dollar
lost 91.2% of its purchasing power over
these 80 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 2006 at the same ratio, 11.39: $1,000 becomes
$11,390, and $10,000 becomes $113,898.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2006
$1.00
$11.39
$5.00
$56.95
$10.00
$114
$20.00
$228
$50.00
$569
$100
$1,139
$500
$5,695
$1,000
$11,390
$5,000
$56,949
$10,000
$113,898
$100,000
$1,138,983
$1,000,000
$11,389,831
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2006
Between 1926 and 2006, food rose the most, up 1048.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 361.4%, against 1039.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2006, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$1,139
Food
3.10%
$1,148
Apparel
1.93%
$461
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 2006
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 1926–2006 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
2000–2006
2.66%
17.1%
$1,139
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $183 by
1966, on its way to $1,139 in 2006; 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: 2006
In 2006, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,139; the year's average CPI of 201.6 is the level
behind every 2006 figure on this page.
Inflation was 3.2% in 2006 and gasoline averaged $2.59 a gallon, up 29 cents from 2005. The
median household earned about $48,200 and the median new home cost $246,500, a gain of about
2% after a 13% jump in 2004 and 9% in 2005. National home prices, by the S&P/Case-Shiller
index, peaked in mid-2006. Ben Bernanke replaced Alan Greenspan as Federal Reserve chair on
February 1, and on June 29 the Fed raised its policy rate to 5.25%, the last of 17 straight
quarter-point increases. It held there for over a year. A first-class stamp rose to 39 cents in
January, and the federal minimum wage was $5.15 for the ninth full year in a row.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2006: $100 is worth $1,139 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2006/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2006. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2006/