$100 in 1927 is worth $255 in 1973,
because prices increased 155.2% over that period, an average of
2.06% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$255
in 1973
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
155.2%
Average inflation rate
2.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$255
Price difference ($100 base)
$155
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1973
44.4
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1973
6.22%
$100 in 1927 → 1973
$255
$100 in 1973 → 1927
$39.19
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1973
Between 1927 and 1973, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 44.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 155.2%, which works out to an average of
2.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.39 buys in 1973: the 1927 dollar
lost 60.8% of its purchasing power over
these 46 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 1973 at the same ratio, 2.55: $1,000 becomes
$2,552, and $10,000 becomes $25,517.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1973
$1.00
$2.55
$5.00
$12.76
$10.00
$25.52
$20.00
$51.03
$50.00
$128
$100
$255
$500
$1,276
$1,000
$2,552
$5,000
$12,759
$10,000
$25,517
$100,000
$255,172
$1,000,000
$2,551,724
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1973
Between 1927 and 1973, food rose the most, up 193.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 155.3%, against 155.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1973, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.06%
$255
Food
2.37%
$294
Apparel
2.06%
$255
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 1973
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 1927–1973 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
1970–1973
4.60%
14.4%
$255
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $137 by
1949, on its way to $255 in 1973; 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: 1973
In 1973, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $255; the year's average CPI of 44.4 is the level
behind every 1973 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.2% in 1973, nearly double 1972’s 3.2%,
as Nixon’s wage and price controls were phased out through the year and
pressure the controls had been holding back broke loose. The bigger shock
arrived that October, when Arab oil-producing states embargoed exports to the
United States and other supporters of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Crude
oil, which had traded around $3 a barrel, approached $12 by early 1974, and
gas lines became a fixture outside filling stations nationwide. Earlier in
the year, the Paris Peace Accords, signed that January 27, ended direct
American combat in Vietnam and set a 60-day deadline for withdrawing
remaining U.S. troops, even as fighting between North and South Vietnam went
on. Financial markets read the year correctly as a turning point: the Dow
Jones Industrial Average peaked at 1,051.70 on January 11, a level it would
not reach again until 1980, before the oil shock and rising interest rates
dragged it into a two-year bear market. A median household earned $10,512 in
1973, a new home sold for a median $32,500, and gas averaged 38.5 cents a
gallon, still under half of what the embargo’s effects would bring the
following year. Consumer prices stood 348.5% above their
1913 level by year’s end, with the decade’s worst inflation
still ahead.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1973: $100 is worth $255 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1973/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1973. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1973/