$100 in 1927 is worth $154 in 1955,
because prices increased 54.0% over that period, an average of
1.55% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$154
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
54.0%
Average inflation rate
1.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$154
Price difference ($100 base)
$54.02
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1927 → 1955
$154
$100 in 1955 → 1927
$64.93
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1955
Between 1927 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 54.0%, which works out to an average of
1.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1955: the 1927 dollar
lost 35.1% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1955 at the same ratio, 1.54: $1,000 becomes
$1,540, and $10,000 becomes $15,402.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1955
$1.00
$1.54
$5.00
$7.70
$10.00
$15.40
$20.00
$30.80
$50.00
$77.01
$100
$154
$500
$770
$1,000
$1,540
$5,000
$7,701
$10,000
$15,402
$100,000
$154,023
$1,000,000
$1,540,230
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1955
Between 1927 and 1955, apparel rose the most, up 69.6%, while food rose the least, up 69.5%, against 54.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.55%
$154
Apparel
1.90%
$170
Food
1.90%
$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 1955
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 1927–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$154
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $84.48 by
1941, on its way to $154 in 1955; 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 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $154; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1955: $100 is worth $154 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1955/