$100 in 1925 is worth $153 in 1953,
because prices increased 52.6% over that period, an average of
1.52% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$153
in 1953
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
52.6%
Average inflation rate
1.52% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$153
Price difference ($100 base)
$52.57
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1953
26.7
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1953
0.75%
$100 in 1925 → 1953
$153
$100 in 1953 → 1925
$65.54
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1953
Between 1925 and 1953, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 26.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 52.6%, which works out to an average of
1.52% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.66 buys in 1953: the 1925 dollar
lost 34.5% of its purchasing power over
these 28 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 1953 at the same ratio, 1.53: $1,000 becomes
$1,526, and $10,000 becomes $15,257.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1953
$1.00
$1.53
$5.00
$7.63
$10.00
$15.26
$20.00
$30.51
$50.00
$76.29
$100
$153
$500
$763
$1,000
$1,526
$5,000
$7,629
$10,000
$15,257
$100,000
$152,571
$1,000,000
$1,525,714
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1953
Between 1925 and 1953, food rose the most, up 71.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.9%, against 52.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1953, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.52%
$153
Food
1.95%
$172
Apparel
1.78%
$164
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 1953
Prices climbed fastest in the 1940s, averaging 5.58% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1953 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
1950–1953
3.47%
10.8%
$153
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $79.43 by
1939, on its way to $153 in 1953; 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 1953, prices rose 0.8% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $153; the year's average CPI of 26.7 is the level
behind every 1953 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.8% in 1953, down from 1952’s 1.9% as
fighting in Korea wound toward a truce and three years of wartime buying
pressure finally eased. The year’s biggest shock came from Moscow: Soviet
leader Joseph Stalin died March 5 after nearly three decades in power, the
first change of Soviet leadership since the 1920s, opening a period of
uncertainty over how his successors would deal with the West. Washington
used the calmer backdrop to unwind its own wartime machinery. Authority
for the price and wage controls imposed in 1951 lapsed that spring, as the
Eisenhower administration, which favored free markets over controls, wound
down the Office of Price Stabilization. The war itself ended, on paper,
that July: negotiators signed an armistice July 27 at Panmunjom, halting
the fighting roughly along the original border near the 38th parallel. No
formal peace treaty ever followed, and North and South Korea remain
technically at war. Consumer prices finished 1953 169.7% 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 1953: $100 is worth $153 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1953/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1953. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1953/