$100 in 1927 is worth $1,850 in 2025,
because prices increased 1750.2% over that period, an average of
3.02% a year.
$100 in 1927 has
the same buying power as
$1,850
in 2025
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1750.2%
Average inflation rate
3.02% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,850
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,750
CPI in 1927
17.4
CPI in 2025
321.943
Inflation in 1927
-1.69%
Inflation in 2025
2.63%
$100 in 1927 → 2025
$1,850
$100 in 2025 → 1927
$5.40
What happened to prices between 1927 and 2025
Between 1927 and 2025, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.4 to 321.943.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1750.2%, which works out to an average of
3.02% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1927 bought what
$0.05 buys in 2025: the 1927 dollar
lost 94.6% of its purchasing power over
these 98 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 2025 at the same ratio, 18.50: $1,000 becomes
$18,502, and $10,000 becomes $185,025.
Amount in 1927
Value in 2025
$1.00
$18.50
$5.00
$92.51
$10.00
$185
$20.00
$370
$50.00
$925
$100
$1,850
$500
$9,251
$1,000
$18,502
$5,000
$92,512
$10,000
$185,025
$100,000
$1,850,247
$1,000,000
$18,502,471
Inflation by spending category, 1927–2025
Between 1927 and 2025, food rose the most, up 1970.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 419.0%, against 1750.2% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1927
spending costs in 2025, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1927 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.02%
$1,850
Food
3.14%
$2,070
Apparel
1.69%
$519
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 2025
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 1927–2025 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
2020–2025
4.46%
24.4%
$1,850
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1927
$100 from 1927 had already become $348 by
1977, on its way to $1,850 in 2025; 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: 2025
In 2025, prices rose 2.6% and $100 from 1927 had the buying
power of $1,850; the year's average CPI of 321.943 is the level
behind every 2025 figure on this page.
2025 was a year of trade policy and data disruptions rather than an
inflation surge. Consumer prices rose 2.6% on average, a step down from
2024’s 2.9% and well below the 8.0% of 2022. Tariffs announced in April
pushed up prices for some imported goods, including furniture, apparel, and
auto parts, but the effect on the overall index was smaller than many
forecasters feared at the start of the year, in part because retailers
absorbed some of the cost and demand for services stayed steady.
The Federal Reserve held its policy rate steady through the first half of the
year, then began cutting again in September, lowering it in three quarter-point
steps to 3.50–3.75% by December.
The federal government shutdown that began October 1 lasted 43 days, and the
Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish a CPI for October 2025 because the
survey data could not be collected. The federal minimum wage stayed at $7.25,
and a first-class stamp rose to 78 cents in July.
MLA: “Inflation from 1927 to 2025: $100 is worth $1,850 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2025/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1927 to 2025. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1927-to-2025/