$100 in 1925 is worth $82.29 in 1937,
because prices declined 17.7% over that period, an average of
1.61% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$82.29
in 1937
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-17.7%
Average inflation rate
-1.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$82.29
Price difference ($100 base)
-$17.71
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1937
14.4
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1937
3.60%
$100 in 1925 → 1937
$82.29
$100 in 1937 → 1925
$122
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1937
Between 1925 and 1937, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 14.4.
Cumulatively, prices declined 17.7%, which works out to an average of
-1.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$1.22 buys in 1937: the 1925 dollar
gained 21.5% in purchasing power over
these 12 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 1937 at the same ratio, 0.82: $1,000 becomes
$823, and $10,000 becomes $8,229.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1937
$1.00
$0.82
$5.00
$4.11
$10.00
$8.23
$20.00
$16.46
$50.00
$41.14
$100
$82.29
$500
$411
$1,000
$823
$5,000
$4,114
$10,000
$8,229
$100,000
$82,286
$1,000,000
$822,857
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1937
Every category fell between 1925 and 1937: food the most, down 20.6%, and apparel the least, down 16.3%. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1937, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
-1.61%
$82.29
Apparel
-1.48%
$83.65
Food
-1.90%
$79.39
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 1937
Prices fell throughout this span: most slowly in the 1920s (0.9% a year) and fastest in the 1930s (2.1% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1937 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1925, at end
1925–1930
-0.93%
-4.6%
$95.43
1930–1937
-2.09%
-13.8%
$82.29
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $86.86 by
1931, on its way to $82.29 in 1937; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 3.6% in 1937, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1937, prices rose 3.6% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $82.29; the year's average CPI of 14.4 is the level
behind every 1937 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.6% in 1937, the fastest pace since before the
Depression and the fourth straight year of gains, leaving prices 10.8% above
their 1933 trough though still 15.8% below the
1929 peak. The recovery did not last the year. The National
Bureau of Economic Research dates a new business cycle peak to that May, the
start of what became known as the Recession of 1937-38. Policy tightened on
two fronts at once: the Federal Reserve had doubled bank reserve
requirements over the preceding year to head off inflation it worried was
building, and the federal government pulled back its own spending even as
new Social Security payroll taxes began draining money from paychecks
months before the first benefit checks went out. Together they choked off a
recovery that had not yet reached its pre-Depression footing. Not every
milestone that year was economic. The Golden Gate Bridge opened to traffic
on May 27 after four years of construction, at the time the longest
suspension bridge span in the world, a rare bright spot in a year that would
end with the economy sliding backward again. First-class postage held at 3
cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1937: $100 is worth $82.29 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1937/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1937. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1937/