$100 in 1927 is worth $82.76 in 1937,
because prices declined 17.2% over that period, an average of
1.87% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$82.76
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-17.2%
Average inflation rate
-1.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$82.76
Price difference ($100 base)
-$17.24
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1927 → 1937
$82.76
$100 in 1937 → 1927
$121
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1937
Between 1927 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 17.2%, which works out to an average of
-1.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$1.21 buys in 1937: the 1927 dollar
gained 20.8% in purchasing power over
these 10 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 1937 at the same ratio, 0.83: $1,000 becomes
$828, and $10,000 becomes $8,276.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1937
$1.00
$0.83
$5.00
$4.14
$10.00
$8.28
$20.00
$16.55
$50.00
$41.38
$100
$82.76
$500
$414
$1,000
$828
$5,000
$4,138
$10,000
$8,276
$100,000
$82,759
$1,000,000
$827,586
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1937
Every category fell between 1927 and 1937: food the most, down 20.1%, and apparel the least, down 13.0%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.87%
$82.76
Apparel
-1.39%
$86.96
Food
-2.22%
$79.88
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 1937
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1937 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1937
-2.09%
-13.8%
$82.76
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $78.74 by
1932, on its way to $82.76 in 1937; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1937, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $82.76; the year's average CPI of 14.4 is the level
behind every 1937 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1937: $100 is worth $82.76 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1937/