$100 in 1925 is worth $127 in 1947,
because prices increased 27.4% over that period, an average of
1.11% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$127
in 1947
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
27.4%
Average inflation rate
1.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$127
Price difference ($100 base)
$27.43
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1947
22.3
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1947
14.36%
$100 in 1925 → 1947
$127
$100 in 1947 → 1925
$78.48
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1947
Between 1925 and 1947, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 22.3.
Cumulatively, prices increased 27.4%, which works out to an average of
1.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.78 buys in 1947: the 1925 dollar
lost 21.5% of its purchasing power over
these 22 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 1947 at the same ratio, 1.27: $1,000 becomes
$1,274, and $10,000 becomes $12,743.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1947
$1.00
$1.27
$5.00
$6.37
$10.00
$12.74
$20.00
$25.49
$50.00
$63.71
$100
$127
$500
$637
$1,000
$1,274
$5,000
$6,371
$10,000
$12,743
$100,000
$127,429
$1,000,000
$1,274,286
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1947
Between 1925 and 1947, apparel rose the most, up 51.7%, while food rose the least, up 46.1%, against 27.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1947, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.11%
$127
Apparel
1.91%
$152
Food
1.74%
$146
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 1947
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 6.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1947 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
1940–1947
6.88%
59.3%
$127
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $79.43 by
1936, on its way to $127 in 1947; each row shows the CPI, that
year's inflation rate, and the running value.
Within the span, inflation peaked at 14.4% in 1947, and prices fell 9.9% in 1932, the deepest deflation of the period.
In 1947, prices rose 14.4% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $127; the year's average CPI of 22.3 is the level
behind every 1947 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 14.4% in 1947, up from 1946’s 8.3% and
the fastest annual increase since 1920, as the last of the wartime price
controls disappeared and a year of strikes, wage catch-up, and lingering
shortages hit consumers all at once. Congress answered the previous year’s
strike wave that June, overriding President Truman’s veto to pass the
Taft-Hartley Act, which banned secondary boycotts and the closed shop and
let states adopt “right-to-work” laws curbing union power. American
attention was also turning outward. In a June 5 speech at Harvard,
Secretary of State George Marshall outlined a U.S.-funded plan to rebuild
Western Europe’s economies, an effort that would become known as the
Marshall Plan once Congress funded it the following year. The government
reorganized itself for the confrontation with the Soviet Union that plan was
partly designed to prevent: the National Security Act, signed July 26,
created the Department of Defense, the Air Force as a separate service, the
Central Intelligence Agency, and the National Security Council. Consumer
prices stood 125.3% above their 1913 level and 30.4% above
1929’s pre-Depression peak, up from just 1.2% above it four
years earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage
stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1947: $100 is worth $127 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1947/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1947. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1947/