$100 in 1927 is worth $1,233 in 2009,
because prices increased 1133.0% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,233
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1133.0%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,233
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,133
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1927 → 2009
$1,233
$100 in 2009 → 1927
$8.11
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2009
Between 1927 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1133.0%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2009: the 1927 dollar
lost 91.9% of its purchasing power over
these 82 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 2009 at the same ratio, 12.33: $1,000 becomes
$12,330, and $10,000 becomes $123,297.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2009
$1.00
$12.33
$5.00
$61.65
$10.00
$123
$20.00
$247
$50.00
$616
$100
$1,233
$500
$6,165
$1,000
$12,330
$5,000
$61,649
$10,000
$123,297
$100,000
$1,232,971
$1,000,000
$12,329,713
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2009
Between 1927 and 2009, food rose the most, up 1229.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 374.6%, against 1133.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$1,233
Food
3.21%
$1,329
Apparel
1.92%
$475
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 2009
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 1927–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,233
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $192 by
1967, on its way to $1,233 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,233; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,233 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2009/