$100 in 1925 is worth $153 in 1955,
because prices increased 53.1% over that period, an average of
1.43% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$153
in 1955
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
53.1%
Average inflation rate
1.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$153
Price difference ($100 base)
$53.14
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1955
26.8
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1955
-0.37%
$100 in 1925 → 1955
$153
$100 in 1955 → 1925
$65.30
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1955
Between 1925 and 1955, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 26.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 53.1%, which works out to an average of
1.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.65 buys in 1955: the 1925 dollar
lost 34.7% of its purchasing power over
these 30 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 1955 at the same ratio, 1.53: $1,000 becomes
$1,531, and $10,000 becomes $15,314.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1955
$1.00
$1.53
$5.00
$7.66
$10.00
$15.31
$20.00
$30.63
$50.00
$76.57
$100
$153
$500
$766
$1,000
$1,531
$5,000
$7,657
$10,000
$15,314
$100,000
$153,143
$1,000,000
$1,531,429
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1955
Between 1925 and 1955, food rose the most, up 68.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 63.1%, against 53.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1955, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.43%
$153
Food
1.75%
$168
Apparel
1.64%
$163
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 1955
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 1925–1955 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
1950–1955
2.15%
11.2%
$153
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $80.00 by
1940, on its way to $153 in 1955; 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 1955, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $153; the year's average CPI of 26.8 is the level
behind every 1955 figure on this page.
Consumer prices fell 0.4% in 1955, the first annual decline since 1949,
as a strong rebound from the 1953-54 recession delivered growth without
much price pressure; automakers and appliance makers competed hard on
price for a booming consumer market. Organized labor consolidated that
December, when the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of
Industrial Organizations merged on the 5th under President George Meany,
uniting roughly 15 million workers in the AFL-CIO after two decades as
rival federations. That same day, a different kind of organizing began in
Montgomery, Alabama: four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing
to give up her bus seat to a white passenger, the city’s Black community
began a boycott of its buses that would last more than a year and help
launch the civil rights movement’s mass phase. Markets got a scare that
September: news of Eisenhower’s heart attack on the 24th sent the Dow
Jones Industrial Average to its steepest one-day drop since the 1929
crash when trading resumed that Monday, before stocks recovered as the
president’s health improved. Consumer prices finished 1955 170.7% above
their 1913 level, essentially unchanged from where they
stood a year earlier. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at 75 cents an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1955: $100 is worth $153 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1955/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1955. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1955/