$100 in 1926 is worth $1,339 in 2015,
because prices increased 1239.1% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,339
in 2015
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1239.1%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,339
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,239
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2015
237.017
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2015
0.12%
$100 in 1926 → 2015
$1,339
$100 in 2015 → 1926
$7.47
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2015
Between 1926 and 2015, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 237.017.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1239.1%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2015: the 1926 dollar
lost 92.5% of its purchasing power over
these 89 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 2015 at the same ratio, 13.39: $1,000 becomes
$13,391, and $10,000 becomes $133,908.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2015
$1.00
$13.39
$5.00
$66.95
$10.00
$134
$20.00
$268
$50.00
$670
$100
$1,339
$500
$6,695
$1,000
$13,391
$5,000
$66,954
$10,000
$133,908
$100,000
$1,339,079
$1,000,000
$13,390,791
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2015
Between 1926 and 2015, food rose the most, up 1354.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 386.1%, against 1239.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2015, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$1,339
Food
3.05%
$1,454
Apparel
1.79%
$486
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 2015
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 1926–2015 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
2010–2015
1.68%
8.7%
$1,339
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $229 by
1971, on its way to $1,339 in 2015; 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: 2015
In 2015, prices rose 0.1% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,339; the year's average CPI of 237.017 is the level
behind every 2015 figure on this page.
2015 was almost a year with no inflation at all. Consumer prices rose 0.1%,
the smallest increase since the 2009 decline, because energy prices kept
falling. Gasoline averaged $2.45 a gallon, down from $3.37 in 2014, and a
strong dollar made imported goods cheaper. The picture was different outside
food and energy: core prices rose about 1.8% as rents and medical costs
climbed.
Incomes finally showed real progress. Median household income reached $56,516,
a large jump from $53,657, and the median new home sold for about $296,400. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp stayed at 49
cents.
The Federal Reserve chose December to end its zero-rate policy, raising the
target range to 0.25–0.50% for the first time since 2006. It moved even
though headline inflation was far under 2%, arguing that the drag from
energy was temporary. Earlier, a currency shift in China in August had shaken
global markets and pushed oil below $40 a barrel. Prices in 2015 ended
the year barely above their 2014 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2015: $100 is worth $1,339 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2015/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2015. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2015/