$100 in 1927 is worth $156 in 1956,
because prices increased 56.3% over that period, an average of
1.55% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$156
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
56.3%
Average inflation rate
1.55% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$156
Price difference ($100 base)
$56.32
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1927 → 1956
$156
$100 in 1956 → 1927
$63.97
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1956
Between 1927 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 56.3%, which works out to an average of
1.55% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1956: the 1927 dollar
lost 36.0% of its purchasing power over
these 29 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.56: $1,000 becomes
$1,563, and $10,000 becomes $15,632.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.56
$5.00
$7.82
$10.00
$15.63
$20.00
$31.26
$50.00
$78.16
$100
$156
$500
$782
$1,000
$1,563
$5,000
$7,816
$10,000
$15,632
$100,000
$156,322
$1,000,000
$1,563,218
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1956
Between 1927 and 1956, apparel rose the most, up 72.7%, while food rose the least, up 70.7%, against 56.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.55%
$156
Apparel
1.90%
$173
Food
1.86%
$171
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 1956
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 1927–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$156
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 $156 in 1956; 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 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $156; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1956: $100 is worth $156 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1956/