$100 in 1927 is worth $1,122 in 2005,
because prices increased 1022.4% over that period, an average of
3.15% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,122
in 2005
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1022.4%
Average inflation rate
3.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,122
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,022
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2005
195.3
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2005
3.39%
$100 in 1927 → 2005
$1,122
$100 in 2005 → 1927
$8.91
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2005
Between 1927 and 2005, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 195.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1022.4%, which works out to an average of
3.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2005: the 1927 dollar
lost 91.1% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2005 at the same ratio, 11.22: $1,000 becomes
$11,224, and $10,000 becomes $112,241.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2005
$1.00
$11.22
$5.00
$56.12
$10.00
$112
$20.00
$224
$50.00
$561
$100
$1,122
$500
$5,612
$1,000
$11,224
$5,000
$56,121
$10,000
$112,241
$100,000
$1,122,414
$1,000,000
$11,224,138
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2005
Between 1927 and 2005, food rose the most, up 1062.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 372.3%, against 1022.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2005, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.15%
$1,122
Food
3.20%
$1,163
Apparel
2.01%
$472
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 2005
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 1927–2005 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
2000–2005
2.55%
13.4%
$1,122
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $192 by
1967, on its way to $1,122 in 2005; 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: 2005
In 2005, prices rose 3.4% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,122; the year's average CPI of 195.3 is the level
behind every 2005 figure on this page.
Inflation rose to 3.4% in 2005, up from 2.7% in 2004, as gasoline averaged $2.30 a gallon,
compared with $1.88 the year before. Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, and with
Hurricane Rita weeks later it disrupted Gulf Coast refining, pushing the national average
price past $3 in early September. The Federal Reserve raised its policy rate at every meeting,
from 2.25% to 4.25%, to keep energy costs from feeding into other prices. The median household
earned about $46,300, up 4.5% from 2004, but the median new home price rose a further 9%, to
$240,900. In April, Congress passed a bankruptcy law that made it harder to clear debts. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents until January 2006, and the federal minimum wage stayed
at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2005: $100 is worth $1,122 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2005/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2005. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2005/