$100 in 1925 is worth $101 in 1944,
because prices increased 0.6% over that period, an average of
0.03% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$101
in 1944
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
0.6%
Average inflation rate
0.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$101
Price difference ($100 base)
$0.57
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1944
17.6
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1944
1.73%
$100 in 1925 → 1944
$101
$100 in 1944 → 1925
$99.43
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1944
Between 1925 and 1944, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 17.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 0.6%, which works out to an average of
0.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.99 buys in 1944: the 1925 dollar
lost 0.6% of its purchasing power over
these 19 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 1944 at the same ratio, 1.01: $1,000 becomes
$1,006, and $10,000 becomes $10,057.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1944
$1.00
$1.01
$5.00
$5.03
$10.00
$10.06
$20.00
$20.11
$50.00
$50.29
$100
$101
$500
$503
$1,000
$1,006
$5,000
$5,029
$10,000
$10,057
$100,000
$100,571
$1,000,000
$1,005,714
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1944
Between 1925 and 1944, apparel rose the most, up 13.3%, while food rose the least, up 2.4%, against 0.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1944, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
0.03%
$101
Apparel
0.66%
$113
Food
0.13%
$102
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 1944
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.89% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1944 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
1940–1944
5.89%
25.7%
$101
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 $101 in 1944; 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 1944, prices rose 1.7% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $101; the year's average CPI of 17.6 is the level
behind every 1944 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 1.7% in 1944, down from 1943’s
6.1% and the slowest increase of the war years, as price and wage controls
held the cost of living nearly flat even as the conflict reached its most
expensive phase. The war itself turned decisively that June, when more than
150,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, opening the
long-planned second front against Nazi Germany. Congress used the same
month to plan for the war’s end, passing the GI Bill on June 22 to give
returning veterans money for college or vocational training, low-cost home
and business loans, and unemployment benefits, a package that would reshape
American housing and higher education for a generation. The following
month, delegates from 44 Allied nations gathered at Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, and agreed to peg their currencies to the U.S. dollar, itself
pegged to gold, creating the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank
to manage the new system. Consumer prices stood 77.8% above their
1913 level, a cumulative wartime rise held down by controls
that would start unwinding the following year. First-class postage held at
3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at 30 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1944: $100 is worth $101 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1944/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1944. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1944/