$100 in 1926 is worth $1,171 in 2007,
because prices increased 1071.4% over that period, an average of
3.08% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,171
in 2007
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1071.4%
Average inflation rate
3.08% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,171
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,071
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2007
207.342
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2007
2.85%
$100 in 1926 → 2007
$1,171
$100 in 2007 → 1926
$8.54
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2007
Between 1926 and 2007, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 207.342.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1071.4%, which works out to an average of
3.08% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2007: the 1926 dollar
lost 91.5% of its purchasing power over
these 81 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 2007 at the same ratio, 11.71: $1,000 becomes
$11,714, and $10,000 becomes $117,142.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2007
$1.00
$11.71
$5.00
$58.57
$10.00
$117
$20.00
$234
$50.00
$586
$100
$1,171
$500
$5,857
$1,000
$11,714
$5,000
$58,571
$10,000
$117,142
$100,000
$1,171,424
$1,000,000
$11,714,237
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2007
Between 1926 and 2007, food rose the most, up 1093.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 359.5%, against 1071.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2007, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.08%
$1,171
Food
3.11%
$1,194
Apparel
1.90%
$459
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 2007
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 1926–2007 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
2000–2007
2.69%
20.4%
$1,171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $183 by
1966, on its way to $1,171 in 2007; 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: 2007
In 2007, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,171; the year's average CPI of 207.342 is the level
behind every 2007 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.8% in 2007, with gasoline averaging $2.80 a gallon, but the year is better
known for what began underneath prices. In August, French bank BNP Paribas froze funds tied to
U.S. subprime mortgages, and credit between banks tightened. The Federal Reserve responded with
a half-point cut on September 18, its first in four years, and took the policy rate from 5.25% to
4.25% by December. The economy peaked that month, by the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating, and the Great Recession followed. The median household earned about $50,200, and the
median new home cost $247,900. Congress ended the decade-long freeze on the federal minimum wage
in May, with the first of three steps to $5.85 in July. A first-class stamp cost 41 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2007: $100 is worth $1,171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2007/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2007. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2007/