$100 in 1927 is worth $957 in 1999,
because prices increased 857.5% over that period, an average of
3.19% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$957
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
857.5%
Average inflation rate
3.19% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$957
Price difference ($100 base)
$857
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1927 → 1999
$957
$100 in 1999 → 1927
$10.44
What happened to prices between 1927 and 1999
Between 1927 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 857.5%, which works out to an average of
3.19% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.10 buys in 1999: the 1927 dollar
lost 89.6% of its purchasing power over
these 72 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.57: $1,000 becomes
$9,575, and $10,000 becomes $95,747.
Amount in 1927
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.57
$5.00
$47.87
$10.00
$95.75
$20.00
$191
$50.00
$479
$100
$957
$500
$4,787
$1,000
$9,575
$5,000
$47,874
$10,000
$95,747
$100,000
$957,471
$1,000,000
$9,574,713
Inflation by spending category, 1927–1999
Between 1927 and 1999, food rose the most, up 900.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 419.0%, against 857.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.19%
$957
Food
3.25%
$1,001
Apparel
2.31%
$519
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 1999
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 1927–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$957
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $174 by
1962, on its way to $957 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $957; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 1999: $100 is worth $957 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-1999/