$100 in 1927 is worth $74.71 in 1933,
because prices declined 25.3% over that period, an average of
4.74% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$74.71
in 1933
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-25.3%
Average inflation rate
-4.74% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$74.71
Price difference ($100 base)
-$25.29
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1933
13
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1933
-5.11%
$100 in 1927 → 1933
$74.71
$100 in 1933 → 1927
$134
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1933
Between 1927 and 1933, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 13.
Cumulatively, prices declined 25.3%, which works out to an average of
-4.74% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$1.34 buys in 1933: the 1927 dollar
gained 33.8% in purchasing power over
these 6 years.
Consumer prices fell 1.7% in 1927, a mild retreat after three years of
gradual increases and part of a shallow up-and-down pattern that ran through
the second half of the decade. Aviation delivered the year’s signature
moment: Charles Lindbergh departed Roosevelt Field, New York, on May 20 and
landed at Le Bourget Field outside Paris roughly 33.5 hours later, the first
person to fly the Atlantic solo and nonstop. Detroit closed a chapter of its
own that May, when Ford halted the Model T’s production line after nearly 19
years and more than 15 million cars sold, idling tens of thousands of
workers while its factories retooled for the Model A. The Federal Reserve,
meeting with European central bankers that summer, cut its discount rate to
ease pressure on currencies still recovering from the war, a move later
cited by economists including Milton Friedman and Anna Schwartz as fuel for
the stock market speculation that built through the following two years.
First-class postage held at 2 cents.
Every 1927 amount converts to 1933 at the same ratio, 0.75: $1,000 becomes
$747, and $10,000 becomes $7,471.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1933
$1.00
$0.75
$5.00
$3.74
$10.00
$7.47
$20.00
$14.94
$50.00
$37.36
$100
$74.71
$500
$374
$1,000
$747
$5,000
$3,736
$10,000
$7,471
$100,000
$74,713
$1,000,000
$747,126
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1933
Every category fell between 1927 and 1933: food the most, down 36.6%, and apparel the least, down 25.7%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1933, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
-4.74%
$74.71
Apparel
-4.83%
$74.31
Food
-7.31%
$63.41
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1927: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1927 to 1933
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (8.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1933 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1933
-8.01%
-22.2%
$74.71
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $95.98 by
1930, on its way to $74.71 in 1933; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 0.0% in 1929, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1933, prices fell 5.1% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $74.71; the year's average CPI of 13 is the level
behind every 1933 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 5.1% in 1933, a smaller decline than 1932’s
but enough to complete a four-year slide of 24.0% from the 1929
peak. The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the trough of that
contraction to March 1933, closing out the longest downturn in its
chronology, one that had run 43 months since August 1929. The bottom
arrived alongside a change in government: Franklin D. Roosevelt was
inaugurated March 4 and, within 48 hours, ordered every bank in the country
closed to halt a fresh round of runs. Congress passed the Emergency Banking
Act on March 9, letting solvent banks reopen under federal supervision, and
the panic that had been building for months broke almost immediately. The
administration moved on the currency next: Executive Order 6102, issued
April 5, required Americans to turn in most gold coin, bullion, and
certificates to the Federal Reserve, taking the country off the domestic
gold standard (formal devaluation of the dollar followed the next January).
Congress capped the year’s banking overhaul in June with the Banking Act of
1933, commonly called Glass-Steagall, which created the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation and separated commercial banking from investment
banking. Even after four straight years of falling prices, the CPI still
stood 31.3% above its 1913 level. First-class postage held at
3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1933: $100 is worth $74.71 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1933/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1933. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1933/