$100 in 1925 is worth $98.86 in 1943,
because prices declined 1.1% over that period, an average of
0.06% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$98.86
in 1943
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
-1.1%
Average inflation rate
-0.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$98.86
Price difference ($100 base)
-$1.14
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1943
17.3
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1943
6.13%
$100 in 1925 → 1943
$98.86
$100 in 1943 → 1925
$101
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1943
Between 1925 and 1943, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 17.3.
Cumulatively, prices declined 1.1%, which works out to an average of
-0.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$1.01 buys in 1943: the 1925 dollar
gained 1.2% in purchasing power over
these 18 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 1943 at the same ratio, 0.99: $1,000 becomes
$989, and $10,000 becomes $9,886.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1943
$1.00
$0.99
$5.00
$4.94
$10.00
$9.89
$20.00
$19.77
$50.00
$49.43
$100
$98.86
$500
$494
$1,000
$989
$5,000
$4,943
$10,000
$9,886
$100,000
$98,857
$1,000,000
$988,571
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1943
Between 1925 and 1943, apparel rose the most, up 5.7%, while food rose the least, up 3.6%, against 1.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1943, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
-0.06%
$98.86
Apparel
0.31%
$106
Food
0.20%
$104
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 1943
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.31% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1943 change:
Years
Avg. yearly inflation
Price change
$100 from 1925, at end
1925–1930
-0.93%
-4.6%
$95.43
1930–1940
-1.75%
-16.2%
$80.00
1940–1943
7.31%
23.6%
$98.86
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $76.57 by
1934, on its way to $98.86 in 1943; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 10.9% in 1942, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1943, prices rose 6.1% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $98.86; the year's average CPI of 17.3 is the level
behind every 1943 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 6.1% in 1943, a slower pace than 1942’s
surge but still well above anything the country had seen before the war.
The slowdown owed largely to the “Hold the Line” order, issued that April,
which froze most wages, prices, and rents at their current levels after the
previous year’s jump showed how far demand had outrun the existing
controls. Rationing grew more sophisticated alongside the freeze: starting
in February, a points system split scarce goods into red points for meat,
butter, and other fats and blue points for canned and processed foods,
letting households budget across categories instead of simply going without
once a flat quota ran dry. The government also changed how it collected the
taxes paying for all of it. The Current Tax Payment Act, signed June 9,
required employers to withhold federal income tax directly from paychecks
for the first time, smoothing the flow of wartime revenue and creating the
pay-as-you-go system still used today. Consumer prices stood 74.7% above
their 1913 level and 33.1% above 1933’s
Depression-era low. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1943: $100 is worth $98.86 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1943/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1943. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1943/