$100 in 1927 is worth $172 in 1961,
because prices increased 71.8% over that period, an average of
1.61% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$172
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
71.8%
Average inflation rate
1.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$172
Price difference ($100 base)
$71.84
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1927 → 1961
$172
$100 in 1961 → 1927
$58.19
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1961
Between 1927 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 71.8%, which works out to an average of
1.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1961: the 1927 dollar
lost 41.8% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1961 at the same ratio, 1.72: $1,000 becomes
$1,718, and $10,000 becomes $17,184.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.72
$5.00
$8.59
$10.00
$17.18
$20.00
$34.37
$50.00
$85.92
$100
$172
$500
$859
$1,000
$1,718
$5,000
$8,592
$10,000
$17,184
$100,000
$171,839
$1,000,000
$1,718,391
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1961
Between 1927 and 1961, food rose the most, up 85.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 82.2%, against 71.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.61%
$172
Food
1.83%
$185
Apparel
1.78%
$182
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 1961
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 1927–1961 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$170
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$172
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 $172 in 1961; 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: 1961
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $172; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1961: $100 is worth $172 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1961/