$100 in 1927 is worth $211 in 1969,
because prices increased 110.9% over that period, an average of
1.79% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$211
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
110.9%
Average inflation rate
1.79% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$211
Price difference ($100 base)
$111
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1927 → 1969
$211
$100 in 1969 → 1927
$47.41
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1969
Between 1927 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 110.9%, which works out to an average of
1.79% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.47 buys in 1969: the 1927 dollar
lost 52.6% of its purchasing power over
these 42 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.11: $1,000 becomes
$2,109, and $10,000 becomes $21,092.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.11
$5.00
$10.55
$10.00
$21.09
$20.00
$42.18
$50.00
$105
$100
$211
$500
$1,055
$1,000
$2,109
$5,000
$10,546
$10,000
$21,092
$100,000
$210,920
$1,000,000
$2,109,195
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1969
Between 1927 and 1969, food rose the most, up 126.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 124.5%, against 110.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.79%
$211
Food
1.96%
$226
Apparel
1.94%
$225
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 1969
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 1927–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$211
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $128 by
1947, on its way to $211 in 1969; 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: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $211; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1969: $100 is worth $211 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1969/