$100 in 1927 is worth $1,487 in 2020,
because prices increased 1387.4% over that period, an average of
2.95% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,487
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1387.4%
Average inflation rate
2.95% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,487
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,387
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1927 → 2020
$1,487
$100 in 2020 → 1927
$6.72
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2020
Between 1927 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1387.4%, which works out to an average of
2.95% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2020: the 1927 dollar
lost 93.3% of its purchasing power over
these 93 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 2020 at the same ratio, 14.87: $1,000 becomes
$14,874, and $10,000 becomes $148,742.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2020
$1.00
$14.87
$5.00
$74.37
$10.00
$149
$20.00
$297
$50.00
$744
$100
$1,487
$500
$7,437
$1,000
$14,874
$5,000
$74,371
$10,000
$148,742
$100,000
$1,487,420
$1,000,000
$14,874,195
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2020
Between 1927 and 2020, food rose the most, up 1529.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 366.7%, against 1387.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.95%
$1,487
Food
3.05%
$1,629
Apparel
1.67%
$467
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 2020
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 1927–2020 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
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,487
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $240 by
1972, on its way to $1,487 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,487; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2020: $100 is worth $1,487 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2020/