$100 in 1925 is worth $78.29 in 1935,
because prices declined 21.7% over that period, an average of
2.42% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$78.29
in 1935
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-21.7%
Average inflation rate
-2.42% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$78.29
Price difference ($100 base)
-$21.71
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1935
13.7
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1935
2.24%
$100 in 1925 → 1935
$78.29
$100 in 1935 → 1925
$128
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1935
Between 1925 and 1935, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 13.7.
Cumulatively, prices declined 21.7%, which works out to an average of
-2.42% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$1.28 buys in 1935: the 1925 dollar
gained 27.7% in purchasing power over
these 10 years.
Consumer prices rose 2.3% in 1925, the CPI’s largest single-year increase
since the deflationary swings of the early 1920s, though still mild next to
the double-digit inflation of the World War I years. The country’s cultural
fault lines were on full display that summer in Dayton, Tennessee, where
high school teacher John Scopes was tried July 10-21 for violating a state
law against teaching evolution, a case that drew national press coverage and
pitted prosecutor William Jennings Bryan against defense attorney Clarence
Darrow. Real estate speculation, meanwhile, peaked in Florida, where buyers
flipped undeveloped land in the Miami area on thin down payments, driving
prices far above what the land itself could support; the bubble would
collapse the following year. Detroit reshuffled that June too: Walter
Chrysler reorganized the struggling Maxwell Motor Company into Chrysler
Corporation, the start of what would become one of the American auto
industry’s “Big Three.” First-class postage held at 2 cents for the sixth
straight year.
Every 1925 amount converts to 1935 at the same ratio, 0.78: $1,000 becomes
$783, and $10,000 becomes $7,829.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1935
$1.00
$0.78
$5.00
$3.91
$10.00
$7.83
$20.00
$15.66
$50.00
$39.14
$100
$78.29
$500
$391
$1,000
$783
$5,000
$3,914
$10,000
$7,829
$100,000
$78,286
$1,000,000
$782,857
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1935
Every category fell between 1925 and 1935: food the most, down 24.8%, and apparel the least, down 20.9%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1935, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.42%
$78.29
Apparel
-2.32%
$79.09
Food
-2.82%
$75.15
Not shown because the BLS began these indexes after 1925: core (all items less food & energy) (1957–), energy (1957–), housing (1967–), medical care (1935–), transportation (1935–), recreation (1993–), education & communication (1993–).
Decade by decade: 1925 to 1935
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.9% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.9% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1935 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1925, at end
1925–1930
-0.93%
-4.6%
$95.43
1930–1935
-3.88%
-18.0%
$78.29
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $95.43 by
1930, on its way to $78.29 in 1935; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.1% in 1934, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1935, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $78.29; the year's average CPI of 13.7 is the level
behind every 1935 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.2% in 1935, a second straight annual increase after
1934’s turnaround, though the CPI still sat well below its
1929 peak and the recovery remained uneven and incomplete.
The year’s biggest legislative achievements aimed at making that unevenness
less punishing. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act on August 14,
creating federal old-age pensions and unemployment insurance funded by a new
payroll tax, the first federal safety net of its kind in U.S. history. That
spring, the Works Progress Administration had already begun putting millions
of unemployed Americans to work on public construction, arts, and
infrastructure projects, becoming the largest jobs program of the New Deal.
Congress added labor protections to the mix that July with the National
Labor Relations Act, guaranteeing most private-sector workers the right to
organize and bargain collectively. The human cost of the Dust Bowl was still
mounting on the Plains: the storm known as Black Sunday hit on April 14,
one of the worst of the decade, and continued drought kept driving farm
families off land that could no longer support them. Consumer prices ended
the year 38.4% above their 1913 level. First-class postage
held at 3 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1935: $100 is worth $78.29 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1935/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1935. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1935/