$100 in 1927 is worth $1,086 in 2004,
because prices increased 985.6% over that period, an average of
3.15% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,086
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
985.6%
Average inflation rate
3.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,086
Price difference ($100 base)
$986
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1927 → 2004
$1,086
$100 in 2004 → 1927
$9.21
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2004
Between 1927 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 985.6%, which works out to an average of
3.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2004: the 1927 dollar
lost 90.8% of its purchasing power over
these 77 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 2004 at the same ratio, 10.86: $1,000 becomes
$10,856, and $10,000 becomes $108,563.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2004
$1.00
$10.86
$5.00
$54.28
$10.00
$109
$20.00
$217
$50.00
$543
$100
$1,086
$500
$5,428
$1,000
$10,856
$5,000
$54,282
$10,000
$108,563
$100,000
$1,085,632
$1,000,000
$10,856,322
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2004
Between 1927 and 2004, food rose the most, up 1035.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 375.9%, against 985.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.15%
$1,086
Food
3.21%
$1,135
Apparel
2.05%
$476
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 2004
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 1927–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$1,086
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $192 by
1967, on its way to $1,086 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,086; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2004: $100 is worth $1,086 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2004/