$100 in 1927 is worth $233 in 1971,
because prices increased 132.8% over that period, an average of
1.94% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$233
in 1971
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
132.8%
Average inflation rate
1.94% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$233
Price difference ($100 base)
$133
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1971
40.5
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1971
4.38%
$100 in 1927 → 1971
$233
$100 in 1971 → 1927
$42.96
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1971
Between 1927 and 1971, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 40.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 132.8%, which works out to an average of
1.94% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.43 buys in 1971: the 1927 dollar
lost 57.0% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1971 at the same ratio, 2.33: $1,000 becomes
$2,328, and $10,000 becomes $23,276.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1971
$1.00
$2.33
$5.00
$11.64
$10.00
$23.28
$20.00
$46.55
$50.00
$116
$100
$233
$500
$1,164
$1,000
$2,328
$5,000
$11,638
$10,000
$23,276
$100,000
$232,759
$1,000,000
$2,327,586
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1971
Between 1927 and 1971, food rose the most, up 146.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 141.5%, against 132.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1971, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.94%
$233
Food
2.07%
$246
Apparel
2.02%
$242
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 1971
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 1927–1971 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$223
1970–1971
4.38%
4.4%
$233
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $137 by
1949, on its way to $233 in 1971; 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: 1971
In 1971, prices rose 4.4% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $233; the year's average CPI of 40.5 is the level
behind every 1971 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.4% in 1971, down from 1970’s 5.7% as
the recession that started in December 1969 finally cooled demand. The bigger
economic story came that August 15, when President Nixon closed the “gold
window” that let foreign governments exchange dollars for gold, ending the
Bretton Woods system that had anchored the dollar since World War II. The
same address announced a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, the first
peacetime controls the country had seen, an attempt to break inflationary
expectations without the slower grind of tighter money. The “Nixon Shock,” as
it came to be known, let the dollar float against other currencies for the
first time and set the stage for a wage-and-price-control regime that would
run in various forms into 1973. Politically, the country lowered its voting
age that year: the 26th Amendment, ratified July 1, extended the vote to
18-year-olds, capping a campaign built on the argument that men old enough to
be drafted to Vietnam were old enough to vote for the people who sent them.
The Postal Service, independent since 1970’s reorganization, raised
first-class postage from 6 to 8 cents that May. A median household earned
$9,028 in 1971, up from $8,734 the year before, while gas held near 36 cents
a gallon and a new home sold for a median $25,200. Consumer prices stood
309.1% above their 1913 level by year’s end, still years away
from the double-digit inflation the controls were meant to prevent.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1971: $100 is worth $233 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1971/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1971. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1971/