$100 in 1926 is worth $1,297 in 2012,
because prices increased 1197.1% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,297
in 2012
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1197.1%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,297
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,197
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2012
229.594
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2012
2.07%
$100 in 1926 → 2012
$1,297
$100 in 2012 → 1926
$7.71
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2012
Between 1926 and 2012, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 229.594.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1197.1%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2012: the 1926 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 86 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 2012 at the same ratio, 12.97: $1,000 becomes
$12,971, and $10,000 becomes $129,714.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2012
$1.00
$12.97
$5.00
$64.86
$10.00
$130
$20.00
$259
$50.00
$649
$100
$1,297
$500
$6,486
$1,000
$12,971
$5,000
$64,857
$10,000
$129,714
$100,000
$1,297,141
$1,000,000
$12,971,412
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2012
Between 1926 and 2012, food rose the most, up 1275.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 387.5%, against 1197.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2012, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$1,297
Food
3.09%
$1,375
Apparel
1.86%
$488
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 2012
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 1926–2012 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
2010–2012
2.61%
5.3%
$1,297
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $229 by
1971, on its way to $1,297 in 2012; 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: 2012
In 2012, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,297; the year's average CPI of 229.594 is the level
behind every 2012 figure on this page.
2012 put a number on what the Federal Reserve was aiming for. In January the
Fed announced a 2% inflation target, and consumer prices rose 2.1% for the
year, almost exactly on it. Gasoline averaged $3.62 a gallon, another annual
high, but the pace of increase cooled from 2011’s 3.2% as food and core prices
grew more slowly.
The bigger story was housing and jobs. Home prices began to recover, and the
median new home sold for about $245,200, up from $227,200 the year before.
Median household income was $51,017. The federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 45 cents.
In September the Fed started a third round of asset purchases, this one with
no fixed end date, aimed at lowering unemployment. Overseas, the European
Central Bank’s July pledge to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro calmed
bond markets. A summer drought across the Midwest drove corn and soybean
prices to records, a shock that reached grocery shelves only partly, because
most of what shoppers pay for food covers processing and transport rather than
raw crops.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2012: $100 is worth $1,297 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2012/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2012. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2012/