$100 in 1925 is worth $161 in 1957,
because prices increased 60.6% over that period, an average of
1.49% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$161
in 1957
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
60.6%
Average inflation rate
1.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$161
Price difference ($100 base)
$60.57
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1957
28.1
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1957
3.31%
$100 in 1925 → 1957
$161
$100 in 1957 → 1925
$62.28
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1957
Between 1925 and 1957, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 28.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 60.6%, which works out to an average of
1.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.62 buys in 1957: the 1925 dollar
lost 37.7% of its purchasing power over
these 32 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 1957 at the same ratio, 1.61: $1,000 becomes
$1,606, and $10,000 becomes $16,057.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1957
$1.00
$1.61
$5.00
$8.03
$10.00
$16.06
$20.00
$32.11
$50.00
$80.29
$100
$161
$500
$803
$1,000
$1,606
$5,000
$8,029
$10,000
$16,057
$100,000
$160,571
$1,000,000
$1,605,714
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1957
Between 1925 and 1957, food rose the most, up 75.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 69.2%, against 60.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1957, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.49%
$161
Food
1.77%
$175
Apparel
1.66%
$169
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 1957
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 1925–1957 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
1950–1957
2.22%
16.6%
$161
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 $161 in 1957; 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: 1957
In 1957, prices rose 3.3% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $161; the year's average CPI of 28.1 is the level
behind every 1957 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 3.3% in 1957, up from 1956’s 1.5% and
the sharpest increase since the Korean War price surge of 1951. The jump
fed a growing debate among economists over “cost-push” inflation, prices
climbing from rising wages and material costs rather than excess demand,
a debate that would recur for the next quarter century. The Federal
Reserve tightened policy to fight it, and by August the tighter money
combined with falling business investment to tip the economy into a
recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research’s
dating. The Cold War took a technological turn that October, when the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, on the
4th, stunning the American public and setting off both the Space Race and
a surge in federal science and defense spending the following year. Civil
rights reached a crisis that September in Little Rock, Arkansas: after
Governor Orval Faubus used the National Guard to block nine Black
students from Central High School, Eisenhower federalized the Guard and
sent the 101st Airborne Division to enforce the Supreme Court’s
desegregation order. Consumer prices finished 1957 183.8% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 3 cents, and the
minimum wage stood at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1957: $100 is worth $161 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1957/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1957. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1957/