$100 in 1925 is worth $138 in 1948,
because prices increased 37.7% over that period, an average of
1.40% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$138
in 1948
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
37.7%
Average inflation rate
1.40% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$138
Price difference ($100 base)
$37.71
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1948
24.1
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1948
8.07%
$100 in 1925 → 1948
$138
$100 in 1948 → 1925
$72.61
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1948
Between 1925 and 1948, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 24.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 37.7%, which works out to an average of
1.40% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.73 buys in 1948: the 1925 dollar
lost 27.4% of its purchasing power over
these 23 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 1948 at the same ratio, 1.38: $1,000 becomes
$1,377, and $10,000 becomes $13,771.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1948
$1.00
$1.38
$5.00
$6.89
$10.00
$13.77
$20.00
$27.54
$50.00
$68.86
$100
$138
$500
$689
$1,000
$1,377
$5,000
$6,886
$10,000
$13,771
$100,000
$137,714
$1,000,000
$1,377,143
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1948
Between 1925 and 1948, apparel rose the most, up 61.6%, while food rose the least, up 58.2%, against 37.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1948, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.40%
$138
Apparel
2.11%
$162
Food
2.01%
$158
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 1948
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 7.03% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1948 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
1940–1948
7.03%
72.1%
$138
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 $138 in 1948; 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 1948, prices rose 8.1% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $138; the year's average CPI of 24.1 is the level
behind every 1948 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 8.1% in 1948, down slightly from 1947’s
14.4% but still the second straight year of sharp postwar inflation now
that wartime price controls were fully gone. Congress moved to stabilize a
different economy that April, passing the Economic Cooperation Act to fund
the plan Secretary of State George Marshall had proposed the year before:
more than $13 billion over four years to rebuild Western Europe and counter
Soviet influence. The Cold War turned tense closer to the plan’s target
that June, when Soviet forces cut off road and rail access to the
Western-controlled sectors of Berlin. American and British aircraft
responded almost immediately with an airlift of food, fuel, and supplies
that would keep the city running for nearly a year. Domestic politics
produced its own upset that November: nearly every poll and pundit had
predicted a Republican win, but Harry Truman defeated New York Governor
Thomas Dewey, handing the Chicago Tribune its famously wrong “Dewey Defeats
Truman” headline. Consumer prices finished the year 143.4% above their
1913 level and 40.9% above 1929’s
pre-Depression peak. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum
wage stayed at 40 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1948: $100 is worth $138 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1948/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1948. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1948/