$100 in 1927 is worth $375 in 1978,
because prices increased 274.7% over that period, an average of
2.62% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$375
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
274.7%
Average inflation rate
2.62% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$375
Price difference ($100 base)
$275
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1927 → 1978
$375
$100 in 1978 → 1927
$26.69
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1978
Between 1927 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 274.7%, which works out to an average of
2.62% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1978: the 1927 dollar
lost 73.3% of its purchasing power over
these 51 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 1978 at the same ratio, 3.75: $1,000 becomes
$3,747, and $10,000 becomes $37,471.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1978
$1.00
$3.75
$5.00
$18.74
$10.00
$37.47
$20.00
$74.94
$50.00
$187
$100
$375
$500
$1,874
$1,000
$3,747
$5,000
$18,736
$10,000
$37,471
$100,000
$374,713
$1,000,000
$3,747,126
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1978
Between 1927 and 1978, food rose the most, up 339.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 221.7%, against 274.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.62%
$375
Food
2.94%
$439
Apparel
2.32%
$322
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$375
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $153 by
1953, on its way to $375 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $375; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1978: $100 is worth $375 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1978/