$100 in 1926 is worth $1,721 in 2023,
because prices increased 1621.5% over that period, an average of
2.98% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,721
in 2023
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1621.5%
Average inflation rate
2.98% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,721
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,621
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2023
304.702
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2023
4.12%
$100 in 1926 → 2023
$1,721
$100 in 2023 → 1926
$5.81
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2023
Between 1926 and 2023, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 304.702.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1621.5%, which works out to an average of
2.98% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2023: the 1926 dollar
lost 94.2% of its purchasing power over
these 97 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 2023 at the same ratio, 17.21: $1,000 becomes
$17,215, and $10,000 becomes $172,148.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2023
$1.00
$17.21
$5.00
$86.07
$10.00
$172
$20.00
$344
$50.00
$861
$100
$1,721
$500
$8,607
$1,000
$17,215
$5,000
$86,074
$10,000
$172,148
$100,000
$1,721,480
$1,000,000
$17,214,802
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2023
Between 1926 and 2023, food rose the most, up 1799.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 404.2%, against 1621.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2023, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.98%
$1,721
Food
3.08%
$1,900
Apparel
1.68%
$504
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 2023
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 1926–2023 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,462
2020–2023
5.59%
17.7%
$1,721
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $321 by
1976, on its way to $1,721 in 2023; 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: 2023
In 2023, prices rose 4.1% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,721; the year's average CPI of 304.702 is the level
behind every 2023 figure on this page.
2023 was the year inflation came down without a recession. Consumer prices
rose 4.1% on average, roughly half of 2022’s 8.0%, and the December-to-December
rate fell to 3.4%. Gasoline averaged $3.52 a gallon, well below the 2022
average, and supply-chain pressure on goods eased. Shelter, restaurant meals,
and other services stayed expensive, so the CPI kept rising at a rate well
above the pre-pandemic pace.
The Federal Reserve completed its rate-hiking campaign in July, taking the
policy rate to 5.25–5.50%, the highest level in 22 years. The effects showed
up in banking: Silicon Valley Bank failed in March after rate increases eroded
the value of its bond portfolio, the second-largest bank failure in U.S.
history at the time. Despite that, unemployment stayed under 4% all year.
Median household income was $80,610 according to the Census Bureau. The
federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25, and a first-class stamp rose to 66 cents
in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2023: $100 is worth $1,721 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2023/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2023. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2023/