$100 in 1927 is worth $830 in 1993,
because prices increased 730.5% over that period, an average of
3.26% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$830
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
730.5%
Average inflation rate
3.26% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$830
Price difference ($100 base)
$730
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1927 → 1993
$830
$100 in 1993 → 1927
$12.04
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1993
Between 1927 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 730.5%, which works out to an average of
3.26% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1993: the 1927 dollar
lost 88.0% of its purchasing power over
these 66 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 1993 at the same ratio, 8.30: $1,000 becomes
$8,305, and $10,000 becomes $83,046.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1993
$1.00
$8.30
$5.00
$41.52
$10.00
$83.05
$20.00
$166
$50.00
$415
$100
$830
$500
$4,152
$1,000
$8,305
$5,000
$41,523
$10,000
$83,046
$100,000
$830,460
$1,000,000
$8,304,598
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1993
Between 1927 and 1993, food rose the most, up 759.1%, while apparel rose the least, up 428.5%, against 730.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.26%
$830
Food
3.31%
$859
Apparel
2.55%
$528
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 1993
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 1927–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$751
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$830
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $174 by
1962, on its way to $830 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $830; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1993: $100 is worth $830 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1993/