$100 in 1925 is worth $79.43 in 1936,
because prices declined 20.6% over that period, an average of
2.07% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$79.43
in 1936
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-20.6%
Average inflation rate
-2.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$79.43
Price difference ($100 base)
-$20.57
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1936
13.9
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1936
1.46%
$100 in 1925 → 1936
$79.43
$100 in 1936 → 1925
$126
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1936
Between 1925 and 1936, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 13.9.
Cumulatively, prices declined 20.6%, which works out to an average of
-2.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$1.26 buys in 1936: the 1925 dollar
gained 25.9% in purchasing power over
these 11 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 1936 at the same ratio, 0.79: $1,000 becomes
$794, and $10,000 becomes $7,943.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1936
$1.00
$0.79
$5.00
$3.97
$10.00
$7.94
$20.00
$15.89
$50.00
$39.71
$100
$79.43
$500
$397
$1,000
$794
$5,000
$3,971
$10,000
$7,943
$100,000
$79,429
$1,000,000
$794,286
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1936
Every category fell between 1925 and 1936: food the most, down 23.6%, and apparel the least, down 20.2%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1936, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
-2.07%
$79.43
Apparel
-2.03%
$79.85
Food
-2.42%
$76.36
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 1936
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.9% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (3.0% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1936 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1925, at end
1925–1930
-0.93%
-4.6%
$95.43
1930–1936
-3.01%
-16.8%
$79.43
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 $79.43 in 1936; 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 1936, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $79.43; the year's average CPI of 13.9 is the level
behind every 1936 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1936, a third straight annual increase and part
of a slow, steady climb back from the 1933 trough, though
prices and the broader economy still had not fully recovered to their
pre-Depression levels. Voters delivered their verdict on that recovery in
November, reelecting Franklin D. Roosevelt over Republican Alf Landon in one
of the most lopsided elections in U.S. history: Roosevelt carried 46 of 48
states and won the Electoral College 523 to 8, a broad public endorsement of
the New Deal. Public works kept advancing that year, too. Hoover Dam, one of
the era’s signature projects, had been dedicated in September 1935, but its
first generators did not begin sending electricity over transmission lines
to Los Angeles until October 1936, a milestone that showed how long even a
celebrated project took to reach full operation. Consumer prices ended the
year 40.4% above their 1913 level, still 18.7% below the
1929 peak, a gap that would keep narrowing until a sharp new recession
interrupted the recovery the following year. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1936: $100 is worth $79.43 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1936/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1936. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1936/