$100 in 1927 is worth $1,293 in 2011,
because prices increased 1192.8% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,293
in 2011
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1192.8%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,293
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,193
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2011
224.939
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2011
3.16%
$100 in 1927 → 2011
$1,293
$100 in 2011 → 1927
$7.74
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2011
Between 1927 and 2011, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 224.939.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1192.8%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2011: the 1927 dollar
lost 92.3% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2011 at the same ratio, 12.93: $1,000 becomes
$12,928, and $10,000 becomes $129,275.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2011
$1.00
$12.93
$5.00
$64.64
$10.00
$129
$20.00
$259
$50.00
$646
$100
$1,293
$500
$6,464
$1,000
$12,928
$5,000
$64,638
$10,000
$129,275
$100,000
$1,292,753
$1,000,000
$12,927,529
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2011
Between 1927 and 2011, food rose the most, up 1289.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 382.7%, against 1192.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2011, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$1,293
Food
3.18%
$1,389
Apparel
1.89%
$483
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 2011
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 1927–2011 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,253
2010–2011
3.16%
3.2%
$1,293
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $192 by
1967, on its way to $1,293 in 2011; 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: 2011
In 2011, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,293; the year's average CPI of 224.939 is the level
behind every 2011 figure on this page.
2011 brought the fastest inflation of the post-recession recovery. Consumer
prices rose 3.2%, roughly double the 2010 pace, and the cause was mostly at the
pump and the grocery store. Unrest across the Middle East and North Africa,
including the war in Libya, pushed gasoline to an annual average of $3.52 a
gallon, the highest yearly figure recorded to that point. Food prices also
rose faster than the overall index.
Household budgets did not keep up. The median household income was $50,054,
barely above the year before, and the median new home sold for about $227,200.
The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25 and a first-class stamp at 44 cents.
Policy stayed loose. The Federal Reserve kept its policy rate near zero and
launched Operation Twist in September to lower long-term rates. Washington
spent the summer in a debt-ceiling fight that ended in S&P’s August downgrade
of the U.S. credit rating. The inflation spike proved temporary: the
2011 rate was the high point of the early 2010s, and prices grew more slowly
in every year that followed until 2017.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2011: $100 is worth $1,293 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2011/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2011. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2011/