$100 in 1926 is worth $1,232 in 2010,
because prices increased 1132.0% over that period, an average of
3.03% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,232
in 2010
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1132.0%
Average inflation rate
3.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,232
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,132
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2010
218.056
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2010
1.64%
$100 in 1926 → 2010
$1,232
$100 in 2010 → 1926
$8.12
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2010
Between 1926 and 2010, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 218.056.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1132.0%, which works out to an average of
3.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2010: the 1926 dollar
lost 91.9% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2010 at the same ratio, 12.32: $1,000 becomes
$12,320, and $10,000 becomes $123,195.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2010
$1.00
$12.32
$5.00
$61.60
$10.00
$123
$20.00
$246
$50.00
$616
$100
$1,232
$500
$6,160
$1,000
$12,320
$5,000
$61,598
$10,000
$123,195
$100,000
$1,231,955
$1,000,000
$12,319,548
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2010
Between 1926 and 2010, food rose the most, up 1191.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 361.4%, against 1132.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2010, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.03%
$1,232
Food
3.09%
$1,292
Apparel
1.84%
$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 2010
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 1926–2010 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,232
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $183 by
1966, on its way to $1,232 in 2010; 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: 2010
In 2010, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,232; the year's average CPI of 218.056 is the level
behind every 2010 figure on this page.
2010 was a year of recovery without much price pressure. The CPI rose 1.6%, a
return to growth after 2009’s deflation, with gasoline averaging $2.78 a
gallon as energy prices climbed back from their recession lows. Housing costs
barely moved: millions of foreclosed and vacant homes kept rents soft, and the
median new home sold for about $221,800. The federal minimum wage stayed at
$7.25, the level set in July 2009, and a first-class stamp cost 44 cents.
The Federal Reserve was more worried about too little inflation than too
much. Its policy rate sat at 0–0.25%, and in November it announced a further
$600 billion of Treasury purchases to hold down long-term borrowing costs.
Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act in July to tighten financial regulation,
while a 110 billion euro rescue of Greece in May showed that the crisis had
moved from American mortgages to European government debt. For anyone
comparing dollars across the decade, 2010 is a useful baseline: prices were
still close to their 2008 levels, and the years ahead brought a slow, steady
climb.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2010: $100 is worth $1,232 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2010/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2010. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2010/