$100 in 1927 is worth $597 in 1984,
because prices increased 497.1% over that period, an average of
3.18% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$597
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
497.1%
Average inflation rate
3.18% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$597
Price difference ($100 base)
$497
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1927 → 1984
$597
$100 in 1984 → 1927
$16.75
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1984
Between 1927 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 497.1%, which works out to an average of
3.18% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1984: the 1927 dollar
lost 83.3% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1984 at the same ratio, 5.97: $1,000 becomes
$5,971, and $10,000 becomes $59,713.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1984
$1.00
$5.97
$5.00
$29.86
$10.00
$59.71
$20.00
$119
$50.00
$299
$100
$597
$500
$2,986
$1,000
$5,971
$5,000
$29,856
$10,000
$59,713
$100,000
$597,126
$1,000,000
$5,971,264
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1984
Between 1927 and 1984, food rose the most, up 529.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 303.6%, against 497.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.18%
$597
Food
3.28%
$629
Apparel
2.48%
$404
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 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1927–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$597
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $154 by
1955, on its way to $597 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $597; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1984: $100 is worth $597 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1984/