$100 in 1926 is worth $1,819 in 2025,
because prices increased 1718.9% over that period, an average of
2.97% a year.
$100 in 1926 has
the same buying power as
$1,819
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1718.9%
Average inflation rate
2.97% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,819
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,719
CPI in 1926
17.7
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1926
1.14%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1926 → 2025
$1,819
$100 in 2025 → 1926
$5.50
What happened to prices between 1926 and 2025
Between 1926 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.7 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1718.9%, which works out to an average of
2.97% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1926 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2025: the 1926 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 99 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 2025 at the same ratio, 18.19: $1,000 becomes
$18,189, and $10,000 becomes $181,889.
Amount in 1926
Value in 2025
$1.00
$18.19
$5.00
$90.94
$10.00
$182
$20.00
$364
$50.00
$909
$100
$1,819
$500
$9,094
$1,000
$18,189
$5,000
$90,944
$10,000
$181,889
$100,000
$1,818,887
$1,000,000
$18,188,870
Inflation by spending category, 1926–2025
Between 1926 and 2025, food rose the most, up 1897.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 407.0%, against 1718.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1926
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1926 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.97%
$1,819
Food
3.07%
$1,997
Apparel
1.65%
$507
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 2025
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 1926–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$1,819
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1926
$100 from 1926 had already become $321 by
1976, on its way to $1,819 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1926 had the buying
power of $1,819; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1926 to 2025: $100 is worth $1,819 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1926 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1926-to-2025/