$100 in 1926 is worth $1,419 in 2018,
because prices increased 1318.7% over that period, an average of
2.92% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,419
in 2018
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1318.7%
Average inflation rate
2.92% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,419
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,319
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2018
251.107
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2018
2.44%
$100 in 1926 → 2018
$1,419
$100 in 2018 → 1926
$7.05
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2018
Between 1926 and 2018, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 251.107.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1318.7%, which works out to an average of
2.92% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2018: the 1926 dollar
lost 93.0% of its purchasing power over
these 92 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 2018 at the same ratio, 14.19: $1,000 becomes
$14,187, and $10,000 becomes $141,868.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2018
$1.00
$14.19
$5.00
$70.93
$10.00
$142
$20.00
$284
$50.00
$709
$100
$1,419
$500
$7,093
$1,000
$14,187
$5,000
$70,934
$10,000
$141,868
$100,000
$1,418,684
$1,000,000
$14,186,836
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2018
Between 1926 and 2018, food rose the most, up 1391.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 385.2%, against 1318.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2018, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.92%
$1,419
Food
2.98%
$1,492
Apparel
1.73%
$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 2018
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 1926–2018 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
2010–2018
1.78%
15.2%
$1,419
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $229 by
1971, on its way to $1,419 in 2018; 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: 2018
In 2018, prices rose 2.4% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,419; the year's average CPI of 251.107 is the level
behind every 2018 figure on this page.
2018 was the peak of the late-2010s expansion. Consumer prices rose 2.4%,
the fastest since 2011, with gasoline averaging $2.72 a gallon after a summer
high. Unemployment fell to 3.7% in September, the lowest since 1969, and median
household income reached $63,179. The median new home sold for about $331,800,
and a first-class stamp cost 50 cents. The federal minimum wage was still $7.25.
Trade policy became a price factor for the first time in decades. New tariffs
on steel, aluminum, and a growing list of Chinese goods raised costs for
manufacturers and some consumer products, and retaliation cut into exports of
soybeans and other farm goods.
The Federal Reserve, led from February by Jerome Powell, raised rates four
times to 2.25–2.50%. A stock-market drop of nearly 20% in the fourth quarter
led the Fed to signal a pause in early 2019. Oil fell from over $75 a barrel in
October to below $50 by December, which pulled headline inflation lower going
into the next year.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2018: $100 is worth $1,419 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2018/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2018. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2018/