$100 in 1925 is worth $166 in 1959,
because prices increased 66.3% over that period, an average of
1.51% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$166
in 1959
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
66.3%
Average inflation rate
1.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$166
Price difference ($100 base)
$66.29
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1959
29.1
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1959
0.69%
$100 in 1925 → 1959
$166
$100 in 1959 → 1925
$60.14
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1959
Between 1925 and 1959, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 29.1.
Cumulatively, prices increased 66.3%, which works out to an average of
1.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.60 buys in 1959: the 1925 dollar
lost 39.9% of its purchasing power over
these 34 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 1959 at the same ratio, 1.66: $1,000 becomes
$1,663, and $10,000 becomes $16,629.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1959
$1.00
$1.66
$5.00
$8.31
$10.00
$16.63
$20.00
$33.26
$50.00
$83.14
$100
$166
$500
$831
$1,000
$1,663
$5,000
$8,314
$10,000
$16,629
$100,000
$166,286
$1,000,000
$1,662,857
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1959
Between 1925 and 1959, food rose the most, up 80.0%, while apparel rose the least, up 71.1%, against 66.3% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1959, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.51%
$166
Food
1.74%
$180
Apparel
1.59%
$171
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 1959
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 1925–1959 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
1950–1959
2.12%
20.7%
$166
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 $166 in 1959; 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: 1959
In 1959, prices rose 0.7% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $166; the year's average CPI of 29.1 is the level
behind every 1959 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 0.7% in 1959, down sharply from 1958’s
2.8% as the economy recovered briskly from the year before’s recession,
with output and employment both rebounding through the year. The map of
the country changed that year for the first time since 1912: Alaska
joined the union January 3, and Hawaii followed August 21, completing the
50-state United States. Ninety miles from Florida, Cuba changed hands
that January, when Fidel Castro’s guerrilla forces overthrew President
Fulgencio Batista, who fled the country on the 1st; Castro entered Havana
on the 8th, beginning a Communist government that would define Cold War
tensions in the hemisphere for decades. Labor and management fought their
longest battle of the postwar era that summer: the United Steelworkers
walked out July 15 in a dispute over work rules, the longest strike in the
industry’s history, before a federal court granted the Eisenhower
administration a Taft-Hartley back-to-work order that November. Consumer
prices finished the decade 193.9% above their 1913 level,
up 20.7% from where they stood in 1950. First-class
postage held at 4 cents, and the minimum wage stayed at $1.00 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1959: $100 is worth $166 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1959/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1959. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1959/