$100 in 1925 is worth $149 in 1951,
because prices increased 48.6% over that period, an average of
1.53% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$149
in 1951
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
48.6%
Average inflation rate
1.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$149
Price difference ($100 base)
$48.57
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1951
26
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1951
7.88%
$100 in 1925 → 1951
$149
$100 in 1951 → 1925
$67.31
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1951
Between 1925 and 1951, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 26.
Cumulatively, prices increased 48.6%, which works out to an average of
1.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.67 buys in 1951: the 1925 dollar
lost 32.7% of its purchasing power over
these 26 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 1951 at the same ratio, 1.49: $1,000 becomes
$1,486, and $10,000 becomes $14,857.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1951
$1.00
$1.49
$5.00
$7.43
$10.00
$14.86
$20.00
$29.71
$50.00
$74.29
$100
$149
$500
$743
$1,000
$1,486
$5,000
$7,429
$10,000
$14,857
$100,000
$148,571
$1,000,000
$1,485,714
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1951
Between 1925 and 1951, food rose the most, up 70.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 66.9%, against 48.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1951, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.53%
$149
Food
2.08%
$171
Apparel
1.99%
$167
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 1951
Prices climbed fastest in the 1950s, averaging 7.88% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1951 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
1940–1950
5.58%
72.1%
$138
1950–1951
7.88%
7.9%
$149
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $80.57 by
1938, on its way to $149 in 1951; 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 1951, prices rose 7.9% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $149; the year's average CPI of 26 is the level
behind every 1951 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.9% in 1951, up sharply from 1950’s
1.3% and the fastest increase since 1947, as Korean War buying and a
defense spending surge hit an economy still adjusting to peacetime. Much
of the jump came early in the year, before the government stepped in: the
Office of Price Stabilization imposed a general ceiling on prices January
26, and the Wage Stabilization Board froze wages soon after, the broadest
peacetime controls since the war began that June. The year’s more lasting
change came in monetary policy. On March 4, the Treasury and the Federal
Reserve signed the Accord, ending the Fed’s wartime obligation to hold
down interest rates on government bonds and freeing the central bank to
fight inflation on its own terms for the first time since 1942, a shift
that would shape Fed independence for decades. Congress raised taxes that
October to help pay for the war: the Revenue Act of 1951, signed October
20, lifted individual and corporate income taxes along with a range of
excise taxes, the third increase in taxes since fighting began in Korea.
Consumer prices finished 1951 162.6% above their 1913
level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at
75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1951: $100 is worth $149 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1951/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1951. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1951/