$100 in 1927 is worth $79.89 in 1936,
because prices declined 20.1% over that period, an average of
2.46% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$79.89
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-20.1%
Average inflation rate
-2.46% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$79.89
Price difference ($100 base)
-$20.11
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1927 → 1936
$79.89
$100 in 1936 → 1927
$125
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1936
Between 1927 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 20.1%, which works out to an average of
-2.46% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$1.25 buys in 1936: the 1927 dollar
gained 25.2% in purchasing power over
these 9 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 1936 at the same ratio, 0.80: $1,000 becomes
$799, and $10,000 becomes $7,989.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1936
$1.00
$0.80
$5.00
$3.99
$10.00
$7.99
$20.00
$15.98
$50.00
$39.94
$100
$79.89
$500
$399
$1,000
$799
$5,000
$3,994
$10,000
$7,989
$100,000
$79,885
$1,000,000
$798,851
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1936
Every category fell between 1927 and 1936: food the most, down 23.2%, and apparel the least, down 17.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.46%
$79.89
Apparel
-2.05%
$83.00
Food
-2.89%
$76.83
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 1936
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1936 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$79.89
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $87.36 by
1931, on its way to $79.89 in 1936; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.1% in 1934, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $79.89; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1936: $100 is worth $79.89 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1936/