$100 in 1927 is worth $1,803 in 2024,
because prices increased 1702.8% over that period, an average of
3.03% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,803
in 2024
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1702.8%
Average inflation rate
3.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,803
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,703
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2024
313.689
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2024
2.95%
$100 in 1927 → 2024
$1,803
$100 in 2024 → 1927
$5.55
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2024
Between 1927 and 2024, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 313.689.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1702.8%, which works out to an average of
3.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.06 buys in 2024: the 1927 dollar
lost 94.5% of its purchasing power over
these 97 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 2024 at the same ratio, 18.03: $1,000 becomes
$18,028, and $10,000 becomes $180,281.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2024
$1.00
$18.03
$5.00
$90.14
$10.00
$180
$20.00
$361
$50.00
$901
$100
$1,803
$500
$9,014
$1,000
$18,028
$5,000
$90,141
$10,000
$180,281
$100,000
$1,802,810
$1,000,000
$18,028,103
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2024
Between 1927 and 2024, food rose the most, up 1913.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 419.7%, against 1702.8% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2024, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.03%
$1,803
Food
3.14%
$2,014
Apparel
1.71%
$520
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 2024
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 1927–2024 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
2020–2024
4.93%
21.2%
$1,803
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $348 by
1977, on its way to $1,803 in 2024; 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: 2024
In 2024, prices rose 2.9% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,803; the year's average CPI of 313.689 is the level
behind every 2024 figure on this page.
2024 brought inflation close to normal without fully reaching it. Consumer
prices rose 2.9% on average, the smallest yearly increase since 2020, and the
December-to-December rate was also 2.9%. Gasoline averaged $3.30 a gallon,
below 2023’s $3.52. Shelter stayed the biggest driver of the index, so the
pace of price growth in categories that households can’t easily avoid, such as
rent and insurance, lagged the drop in goods and energy costs.
The Federal Reserve declared progress in September, cutting its policy rate
by half a point, the first reduction since the pandemic emergency, and then
by a quarter point in November and again in December. Mortgage rates near 7%
kept the housing market frozen for many would-be buyers.
Median household income was $83,730, the federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 73 cents in July. After the November election,
attention turned to how announced tariffs and tax policy might affect prices
in 2025.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2024: $100 is worth $1,803 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2024/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2024. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2024/