$100 in 1927 is worth $1,557 in 2021,
because prices increased 1457.3% over that period, an average of
2.96% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,557
in 2021
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1457.3%
Average inflation rate
2.96% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,557
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,457
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2021
270.97
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2021
4.70%
$100 in 1927 → 2021
$1,557
$100 in 2021 → 1927
$6.42
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2021
Between 1927 and 2021, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 270.97.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1457.3%, which works out to an average of
2.96% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2021: the 1927 dollar
lost 93.6% of its purchasing power over
these 94 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 2021 at the same ratio, 15.57: $1,000 becomes
$15,573, and $10,000 becomes $155,730.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2021
$1.00
$15.57
$5.00
$77.86
$10.00
$156
$20.00
$311
$50.00
$779
$100
$1,557
$500
$7,786
$1,000
$15,573
$5,000
$77,865
$10,000
$155,730
$100,000
$1,557,299
$1,000,000
$15,572,989
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2021
Between 1927 and 2021, food rose the most, up 1593.6%, while apparel rose the least, up 378.2%, against 1457.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2021, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.96%
$1,557
Food
3.06%
$1,694
Apparel
1.68%
$478
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 2021
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 1927–2021 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
2020–2021
4.70%
4.7%
$1,557
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $240 by
1972, on its way to $1,557 in 2021; 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: 2021
In 2021, prices rose 4.7% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,557; the year's average CPI of 270.97 is the level
behind every 2021 figure on this page.
2021 was the year inflation stopped being background noise. Consumer prices
rose 4.7% on average for the year, and the pace kept building as the months
went on: by December, the 12-month rate had reached 7.0%, the highest since
1982. The proximate cause was a supply chain that could not keep up with a
fast-reopening economy. A global semiconductor shortage choked new car
production and pushed used vehicle prices up by more than a third, the
single largest line item in the year’s inflation math. Lumber, appliances,
and shipping capacity told versions of the same story: demand snapped back
faster than factories, ports, and truckers could handle it. Washington added
fuel in March with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, on top of the
relief already in the pipeline since 2020. For most of the year, the Federal
Reserve called the price surge “transitory,” a temporary reopening effect
expected to fade on its own, and held its policy rate near zero. By
November, with inflation still climbing, the Fed reversed course and began
winding down its bond purchases, the first step toward the rate hikes that
would follow in 2022. Gas averaged $3.01 a gallon for the year, up from
about $2.17 in 2020, while the federal minimum wage held at $7.25,
unchanged since 2009. In hindsight, 2021 reads as the hinge year: the point
where “transitory” inflation became the multi-year fight the Fed spent the
next two years trying to win.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2021: $100 is worth $1,557 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2021/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2021. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2021/