$100 in 1927 is worth $153 in 1953,
because prices increased 53.4% over that period, an average of
1.66% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$153
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
53.4%
Average inflation rate
1.66% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$153
Price difference ($100 base)
$53.45
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1927 → 1953
$153
$100 in 1953 → 1927
$65.17
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1953
Between 1927 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 53.4%, which works out to an average of
1.66% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1953: the 1927 dollar
lost 34.8% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.53: $1,000 becomes
$1,534, and $10,000 becomes $15,345.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.53
$5.00
$7.67
$10.00
$15.34
$20.00
$30.69
$50.00
$76.72
$100
$153
$500
$767
$1,000
$1,534
$5,000
$7,672
$10,000
$15,345
$100,000
$153,448
$1,000,000
$1,534,483
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1953
Between 1927 and 1953, food rose the most, up 72.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 70.4%, against 53.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.66%
$153
Food
2.12%
$173
Apparel
2.07%
$170
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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$153
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $80.46 by
1940, on its way to $153 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $153; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $153 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1953/