$100 in 1925 is worth $165 in 1958,
because prices increased 65.1% over that period, an average of
1.53% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$165
in 1958
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
65.1%
Average inflation rate
1.53% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$165
Price difference ($100 base)
$65.14
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1958
28.9
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1958
2.85%
$100 in 1925 → 1958
$165
$100 in 1958 → 1925
$60.55
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1958
Between 1925 and 1958, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 28.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 65.1%, which works out to an average of
1.53% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.61 buys in 1958: the 1925 dollar
lost 39.4% of its purchasing power over
these 33 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 1958 at the same ratio, 1.65: $1,000 becomes
$1,651, and $10,000 becomes $16,514.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1958
$1.00
$1.65
$5.00
$8.26
$10.00
$16.51
$20.00
$33.03
$50.00
$82.57
$100
$165
$500
$826
$1,000
$1,651
$5,000
$8,257
$10,000
$16,514
$100,000
$165,143
$1,000,000
$1,651,429
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1958
Between 1925 and 1958, food rose the most, up 83.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 69.6%, against 65.1% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1958, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.53%
$165
Food
1.85%
$183
Apparel
1.61%
$170
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 1958
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 1925–1958 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
1950–1958
2.30%
19.9%
$165
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 $165 in 1958; 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: 1958
In 1958, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $165; the year's average CPI of 28.9 is the level
behind every 1958 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.8% in 1958, down only slightly from
1957’s 3.3% even as the country sank into the sharpest
postwar recession to that point, an early sign that inflation and a
shrinking economy could coexist rather than trade off against each other.
The National Bureau of Economic Research dates the downturn’s trough to
that April, with unemployment peaking near 7.5% that summer, the worst
reading since the 1930s. The Post Office raised first-class postage to 4
cents that August 1, up from 3 cents, the rate’s first change since 1932.
Washington answered the Soviet Union’s technological lead that summer
too: Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act on July 29,
establishing NASA, which opened for business that October 1 to compete
with the Soviet space program after the shock of Sputnik the year before.
Consumer prices finished 1958 191.9% above their 1913
level. The minimum wage held at $1.00 an hour, and first-class postage
rose to 4 cents that August, the first increase since 1932.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1958: $100 is worth $165 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1958/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1958. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1958/