$100 in 1927 is worth $713 in 1989,
because prices increased 612.6% over that period, an average of
3.22% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$713
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
612.6%
Average inflation rate
3.22% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$713
Price difference ($100 base)
$613
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1927 → 1989
$713
$100 in 1989 → 1927
$14.03
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1989
Between 1927 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 612.6%, which works out to an average of
3.22% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1989: the 1927 dollar
lost 86.0% of its purchasing power over
these 62 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 1989 at the same ratio, 7.13: $1,000 becomes
$7,126, and $10,000 becomes $71,264.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1989
$1.00
$7.13
$5.00
$35.63
$10.00
$71.26
$20.00
$143
$50.00
$356
$100
$713
$500
$3,563
$1,000
$7,126
$5,000
$35,632
$10,000
$71,264
$100,000
$712,644
$1,000,000
$7,126,437
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1989
Between 1927 and 1989, food rose the most, up 662.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 368.8%, against 612.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.22%
$713
Food
3.33%
$763
Apparel
2.52%
$469
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 1989
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 1927–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$713
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $161 by
1957, on its way to $713 in 1989; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $713; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1989: $100 is worth $713 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1989/