$100 in 1926 is worth $1,444 in 2019,
because prices increased 1344.4% over that period, an average of
2.91% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,444
in 2019
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1344.4%
Average inflation rate
2.91% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,444
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,344
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2019
255.657
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2019
1.81%
$100 in 1926 → 2019
$1,444
$100 in 2019 → 1926
$6.92
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2019
Between 1926 and 2019, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 255.657.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1344.4%, which works out to an average of
2.91% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2019: the 1926 dollar
lost 93.1% of its purchasing power over
these 93 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 2019 at the same ratio, 14.44: $1,000 becomes
$14,444, and $10,000 becomes $144,439.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2019
$1.00
$14.44
$5.00
$72.22
$10.00
$144
$20.00
$289
$50.00
$722
$100
$1,444
$500
$7,222
$1,000
$14,444
$5,000
$72,219
$10,000
$144,439
$100,000
$1,444,390
$1,000,000
$14,443,898
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2019
Between 1926 and 2019, food rose the most, up 1419.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 379.0%, against 1344.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2019, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.91%
$1,444
Food
2.97%
$1,520
Apparel
1.70%
$479
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 2019
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 1926–2019 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
2010–2019
1.78%
17.2%
$1,444
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $229 by
1971, on its way to $1,444 in 2019; 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: 2019
In 2019, prices rose 1.8% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,444; the year's average CPI of 255.657 is the level
behind every 2019 figure on this page.
2019 was the last ordinary year before COVID-19. Consumer prices rose 1.8%,
slightly under the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, with gasoline averaging
$2.60 a gallon. Median household income jumped to $68,703, the highest on
record up to that point, and the median new home sold for about $328,000. A
first-class stamp rose to 55 cents.
The Fed reversed course. After four increases in 2018, it cut rates three
times, to 1.50–1.75%, citing slower global growth, trade tensions, and low
inflation. In July the expansion that began in June 2009 became the longest in
U.S. records, and in August the yield curve briefly inverted, a signal
investors read as a recession warning.
For workers at the bottom of the pay scale, 2019 marked a milestone of a
different kind. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and reached its tenth
year without an increase, the longest gap since the wage was first set. Because
prices had climbed about 19% since it was last raised in 2009, its buying power
was lower than at any point in that span.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2019: $100 is worth $1,444 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2019/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2019. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2019/