$100 in 1925 is worth $155 in 1956,
because prices increased 55.4% over that period, an average of
1.43% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$155
in 1956
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
55.4%
Average inflation rate
1.43% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$155
Price difference ($100 base)
$55.43
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1956
27.2
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1956
1.49%
$100 in 1925 → 1956
$155
$100 in 1956 → 1925
$64.34
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1956
Between 1925 and 1956, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 27.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 55.4%, which works out to an average of
1.43% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.64 buys in 1956: the 1925 dollar
lost 35.7% of its purchasing power over
these 31 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 1956 at the same ratio, 1.55: $1,000 becomes
$1,554, and $10,000 becomes $15,543.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1956
$1.00
$1.55
$5.00
$7.77
$10.00
$15.54
$20.00
$31.09
$50.00
$77.71
$100
$155
$500
$777
$1,000
$1,554
$5,000
$7,771
$10,000
$15,543
$100,000
$155,429
$1,000,000
$1,554,286
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1956
Between 1925 and 1956, food rose the most, up 69.7%, while apparel rose the least, up 66.2%, against 55.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1956, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.43%
$155
Food
1.72%
$170
Apparel
1.65%
$166
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 1956
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 1925–1956 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
1950–1956
2.04%
12.9%
$155
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $84.00 by
1941, on its way to $155 in 1956; 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.
Long periods are sampled every 2 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1956
In 1956, prices rose 1.5% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $155; the year's average CPI of 27.2 is the level
behind every 1956 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in 1956, a return to mild inflation after they had
fallen 0.4% in 1955, the only annual decline of the decade. The two years sat
in the calmest stretch of the postwar index, a lull between the Korean War
price surge earlier in the 1950s and the acceleration that would return in
the 1970s. Congress had already raised the wage floor into that calm: the
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1955, signed the previous August, took
effect March 1 and lifted the federal minimum wage from 75 cents to $1 an
hour, the first increase since 1950. Eisenhower signed a longer-lasting
commitment on June 29, the Federal-Aid Highway Act, funding 41,000 miles of
controlled-access highway at 90% federal cost to build the Interstate
System, the largest public-works program the country had undertaken. He won
a second term that November, carrying 41 states and about 57% of the
popular vote in a rematch against Adlai Stevenson. Abroad, the Suez Crisis
broke the calm on the supply side: Egypt nationalized the canal on July 26,
and after Israel invaded the Sinai on October 29 with British and French
forces following, the canal’s closure and damaged pipelines squeezed oil
shipments to Western Europe for months. Consumer prices stood 174.7% above
their 1913 level by 1956, up 94% since 1940
alone, even after a decade that had barely moved the index. First-class
postage held at 3 cents, unchanged since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1956: $100 is worth $155 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1956/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1956. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1956/