$100 in 1927 is worth $80.46 in 1940,
because prices declined 19.5% over that period, an average of
1.66% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$80.46
in 1940
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-19.5%
Average inflation rate
-1.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$80.46
Price difference ($100 base)
-$19.54
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1940
14
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1940
0.72%
$100 in 1927 → 1940
$80.46
$100 in 1940 → 1927
$124
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1940
Between 1927 and 1940, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 14.
Cumulatively, prices declined 19.5%, which works out to an average of
-1.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$1.24 buys in 1940: the 1927 dollar
gained 24.3% in purchasing power over
these 13 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 1940 at the same ratio, 0.80: $1,000 becomes
$805, and $10,000 becomes $8,046.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1940
$1.00
$0.80
$5.00
$4.02
$10.00
$8.05
$20.00
$16.09
$50.00
$40.23
$100
$80.46
$500
$402
$1,000
$805
$5,000
$4,023
$10,000
$8,046
$100,000
$80,460
$1,000,000
$804,598
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1940
Every category fell between 1927 and 1940: food the most, down 26.8%, and apparel the least, down 13.8%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1940, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.66%
$80.46
Apparel
-1.14%
$86.17
Food
-2.37%
$73.17
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 1940
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (1.4% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1940 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1927, at end
1927–1930
-1.36%
-4.0%
$95.98
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.46
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $74.71 by
1933, on its way to $80.46 in 1940; 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 1940, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $80.46; the year's average CPI of 14 is the level
behind every 1940 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1940, snapping 1939’s decline
and marking the first increase since 1937. The gain was modest, and the CPI
still stood 18.1% below its 1929 peak, a reminder of how far
the recovery from the Depression’s trough had left to go even as defense
orders from Britain and France began reaching American factories. War was
already reshaping domestic policy well before it touched American soil.
Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act that September, the
country’s first peacetime draft, requiring men aged 21 to 35 to register and
authorizing the induction of up to 900,000 men a year, more than a year
before Pearl Harbor. That November, Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented
third term, defeating Republican Wendell Willkie after campaigning on
keeping the United States out of the war then consuming Europe and Asia. The
promise would not hold much longer: within two years, wartime demand would
push consumer prices up faster than at any point since the aftermath of
World War I. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the federal minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour, the level set the previous October under
the Fair Labor Standards Act.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1940: $100 is worth $80.46 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1940/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1940. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1940/