$100 in 1927 is worth $166 in 1958,
because prices increased 66.1% over that period, an average of
1.65% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$166
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
66.1%
Average inflation rate
1.65% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$166
Price difference ($100 base)
$66.09
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1927 → 1958
$166
$100 in 1958 → 1927
$60.21
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1958
Between 1927 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 66.1%, which works out to an average of
1.65% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1958: the 1927 dollar
lost 39.8% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.66: $1,000 becomes
$1,661, and $10,000 becomes $16,609.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.66
$5.00
$8.30
$10.00
$16.61
$20.00
$33.22
$50.00
$83.05
$100
$166
$500
$830
$1,000
$1,661
$5,000
$8,305
$10,000
$16,609
$100,000
$166,092
$1,000,000
$1,660,920
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1958
Between 1927 and 1958, food rose the most, up 84.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 76.3%, against 66.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.65%
$166
Food
1.99%
$184
Apparel
1.85%
$176
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 1958
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 1927–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$166
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $99.43 by
1943, on its way to $166 in 1958; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $166; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1958: $100 is worth $166 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1958/