$100 in 1927 is worth $1,057 in 2003,
because prices increased 957.5% over that period, an average of
3.15% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,057
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
957.5%
Average inflation rate
3.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,057
Price difference ($100 base)
$957
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1927 → 2003
$1,057
$100 in 2003 → 1927
$9.46
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2003
Between 1927 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 957.5%, which works out to an average of
3.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2003: the 1927 dollar
lost 90.5% of its purchasing power over
these 76 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 2003 at the same ratio, 10.57: $1,000 becomes
$10,575, and $10,000 becomes $105,747.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2003
$1.00
$10.57
$5.00
$52.87
$10.00
$106
$20.00
$211
$50.00
$529
$100
$1,057
$500
$5,287
$1,000
$10,575
$5,000
$52,874
$10,000
$105,747
$100,000
$1,057,471
$1,000,000
$10,574,713
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2003
Between 1927 and 2003, food rose the most, up 997.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 377.9%, against 957.5% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.15%
$1,057
Food
3.20%
$1,098
Apparel
2.08%
$478
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 2003
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 1927–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$990
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,057
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $192 by
1967, on its way to $1,057 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,057; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,057 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2003/