$100 in 1927 is worth $555 in 1982,
because prices increased 454.6% over that period, an average of
3.16% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$555
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
454.6%
Average inflation rate
3.16% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$555
Price difference ($100 base)
$455
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1927 → 1982
$555
$100 in 1982 → 1927
$18.03
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1982
Between 1927 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 454.6%, which works out to an average of
3.16% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1982: the 1927 dollar
lost 82.0% of its purchasing power over
these 55 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 1982 at the same ratio, 5.55: $1,000 becomes
$5,546, and $10,000 becomes $55,460.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1982
$1.00
$5.55
$5.00
$27.73
$10.00
$55.46
$20.00
$111
$50.00
$277
$100
$555
$500
$2,773
$1,000
$5,546
$5,000
$27,730
$10,000
$55,460
$100,000
$554,598
$1,000,000
$5,545,977
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1982
Between 1927 and 1982, food rose the most, up 493.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 286.6%, against 454.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.16%
$555
Food
3.29%
$594
Apparel
2.49%
$387
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1982 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$474
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$555
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $154 by
1955, on its way to $555 in 1982; 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: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $555; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1982: $100 is worth $555 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1982/