$100 in 1926 is worth $1,385 in 2017,
because prices increased 1284.9% over that period, an average of
2.93% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,385
in 2017
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1284.9%
Average inflation rate
2.93% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,385
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,285
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2017
245.12
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2017
2.13%
$100 in 1926 → 2017
$1,385
$100 in 2017 → 1926
$7.22
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2017
Between 1926 and 2017, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 245.12.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1284.9%, which works out to an average of
2.93% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2017: the 1926 dollar
lost 92.8% of its purchasing power over
these 91 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 2017 at the same ratio, 13.85: $1,000 becomes
$13,849, and $10,000 becomes $138,486.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2017
$1.00
$13.85
$5.00
$69.24
$10.00
$138
$20.00
$277
$50.00
$692
$100
$1,385
$500
$6,924
$1,000
$13,849
$5,000
$69,243
$10,000
$138,486
$100,000
$1,384,859
$1,000,000
$13,848,588
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2017
Between 1926 and 2017, food rose the most, up 1371.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 385.0%, against 1284.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2017, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.93%
$1,385
Food
3.00%
$1,471
Apparel
1.75%
$485
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 2017
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 1926–2017 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
2010–2017
1.69%
12.4%
$1,385
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $229 by
1971, on its way to $1,385 in 2017; 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: 2017
In 2017, prices rose 2.1% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,385; the year's average CPI of 245.12 is the level
behind every 2017 figure on this page.
2017 pushed consumer prices back above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The
CPI rose 2.1%, the first reading over 2% in five years, helped by a rebound
in energy after OPEC’s output cuts and by a storm-related spike at the pump:
Hurricane Harvey shut a large part of Gulf Coast refining in late August.
Gasoline averaged $2.42 a gallon, up from $2.14 in 2016.
Household incomes kept rising. The median household income reached $61,372,
and the median new home sold for about $322,100. The federal minimum wage
stayed at $7.25, its eighth year at that level, and a first-class stamp rose
to 49 cents.
The Fed raised rates three times, to 1.25–1.50%, and in October began
letting its bond holdings shrink. Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act
in December, lowering the corporate rate to 21%. Even with unemployment near
4%, core inflation stayed under 2%, a puzzle that shaped Fed debates for the
next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2017: $100 is worth $1,385 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2017/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2017. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2017/