$100 in 1926 is worth $1,337 in 2014,
because prices increased 1237.5% over that period, an average of
2.99% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,337
in 2014
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1237.5%
Average inflation rate
2.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,337
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,237
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2014
236.736
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2014
1.62%
$100 in 1926 → 2014
$1,337
$100 in 2014 → 1926
$7.48
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2014
Between 1926 and 2014, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 236.736.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1237.5%, which works out to an average of
2.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2014: the 1926 dollar
lost 92.5% of its purchasing power over
these 88 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 2014 at the same ratio, 13.37: $1,000 becomes
$13,375, and $10,000 becomes $133,749.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2014
$1.00
$13.37
$5.00
$66.87
$10.00
$134
$20.00
$267
$50.00
$669
$100
$1,337
$500
$6,687
$1,000
$13,375
$5,000
$66,875
$10,000
$133,749
$100,000
$1,337,492
$1,000,000
$13,374,915
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2014
Between 1926 and 2014, food rose the most, up 1327.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 392.3%, against 1237.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2014, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.99%
$1,337
Food
3.07%
$1,428
Apparel
1.83%
$492
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 2014
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 1926–2014 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
2010–2014
2.08%
8.6%
$1,337
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $229 by
1971, on its way to $1,337 in 2014; 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: 2014
In 2014, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,337; the year's average CPI of 236.736 is the level
behind every 2014 figure on this page.
2014 ended with the sharpest oil price drop in years. Consumer prices rose
1.6% for the year, close to 2013’s pace, but the annual figure hid a shift at
the pump: crude oil fell from above $100 a barrel in June to below $60 in
December, and gasoline finished the year near $2.25 a gallon after averaging
$3.37 across 2014. The drop reflected record U.S. shale output, softer
global demand, and OPEC’s decision in November to keep producing.
For households, cheaper fuel arrived just as the labor market strengthened.
Median household income was $53,657, essentially flat on the prior year, and
the median new home sold for about $288,500. The federal minimum wage stayed
at $7.25 for a fifth year, and a first-class stamp rose to 49 cents.
The Federal Reserve ended its bond purchases in October but left its policy
rate at zero. A stronger dollar helped hold down import prices. Because
energy weighs heavily in the CPI, the late-year slide carried into 2015, which
posted the smallest annual increase of the decade.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2014: $100 is worth $1,337 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2014/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2014. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2014/