$100 in 1927 is worth $149 in 1951,
because prices increased 49.4% over that period, an average of
1.69% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$149
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
49.4%
Average inflation rate
1.69% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$149
Price difference ($100 base)
$49.43
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1927 → 1951
$149
$100 in 1951 → 1927
$66.92
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1951
Between 1927 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 49.4%, which works out to an average of
1.69% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1951: the 1927 dollar
lost 33.1% of its purchasing power over
these 24 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.49: $1,000 becomes
$1,494, and $10,000 becomes $14,943.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.49
$5.00
$7.47
$10.00
$14.94
$20.00
$29.89
$50.00
$74.71
$100
$149
$500
$747
$1,000
$1,494
$5,000
$7,471
$10,000
$14,943
$100,000
$149,425
$1,000,000
$1,494,253
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1951
Between 1927 and 1951, apparel rose the most, up 73.5%, while food rose the least, up 72.0%, against 49.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.69%
$149
Apparel
2.32%
$174
Food
2.28%
$172
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1951 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$139
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$149
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $79.89 by
1939, on its way to $149 in 1951; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $149; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1951: $100 is worth $149 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1951/