$100 in 1927 is worth $112 in 1946,
because prices increased 12.1% over that period, an average of
0.60% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$112
in 1946
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
12.1%
Average inflation rate
0.60% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$112
Price difference ($100 base)
$12.07
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1946
19.5
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1946
8.33%
$100 in 1927 → 1946
$112
$100 in 1946 → 1927
$89.23
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1946
Between 1927 and 1946, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 19.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 12.1%, which works out to an average of
0.60% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.89 buys in 1946: the 1927 dollar
lost 10.8% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1946 at the same ratio, 1.12: $1,000 becomes
$1,121, and $10,000 becomes $11,207.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1946
$1.00
$1.12
$5.00
$5.60
$10.00
$11.21
$20.00
$22.41
$50.00
$56.03
$100
$112
$500
$560
$1,000
$1,121
$5,000
$5,603
$10,000
$11,207
$100,000
$112,069
$1,000,000
$1,120,690
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1946
Between 1927 and 1946, apparel rose the most, up 36.0%, while food rose the least, up 20.7%, against 12.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1946, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.60%
$112
Apparel
1.63%
$136
Food
1.00%
$121
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 1946
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.68% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1946 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
1940–1946
5.68%
39.3%
$112
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $79.89 by
1936, on its way to $112 in 1946; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1946, prices rose 8.3% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $112; the year's average CPI of 19.5 is the level
behind every 1946 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.3% in 1946, up sharply from 1945’s
2.3% and the sharpest increase since 1942, as wartime price controls
finally came apart. Congress let the Office of Price Administration’s
authority lapse at the end of June, reinstated a weaker version soon after,
then wound the whole system down through the rest of the year, releasing
years of pent-up demand into the price level almost at once. Meat was the
clearest casualty of the fight over decontrol: farmers withheld livestock
rather than sell at capped prices, producing severe shortages that spring
and summer until ceilings on meat were lifted that October, after which
supplies reappeared almost overnight. Labor cashed in its own wartime
restraint the same year. An estimated 4.6 million workers walked out at
some point in 1946, hitting steel, coal, automakers, and the railroads in
the largest strike wave in U.S. history, as unions pushed for wage gains to
offset cost-of-living increases controls could no longer contain. Amid the
turmoil, Congress made a less visible but lasting change to economic
policy: the Employment Act of 1946, signed that February, committed the
federal government to promoting maximum employment and created the Council
of Economic Advisers. Consumer prices stood 97.0% above their
1913 level, nearly double where the index had started 33
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1946: $100 is worth $112 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1946/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1946. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1946/