$100 in 1925 is worth $171 in 1961,
because prices increased 70.9% over that period, an average of
1.50% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$171
in 1961
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
70.9%
Average inflation rate
1.50% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$171
Price difference ($100 base)
$70.86
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1961
29.9
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1961
1.01%
$100 in 1925 → 1961
$171
$100 in 1961 → 1925
$58.53
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1961
Between 1925 and 1961, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 29.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 70.9%, which works out to an average of
1.50% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.59 buys in 1961: the 1925 dollar
lost 41.5% of its purchasing power over
these 36 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 1961 at the same ratio, 1.71: $1,000 becomes
$1,709, and $10,000 becomes $17,086.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1961
$1.00
$1.71
$5.00
$8.54
$10.00
$17.09
$20.00
$34.17
$50.00
$85.43
$100
$171
$500
$854
$1,000
$1,709
$5,000
$8,543
$10,000
$17,086
$100,000
$170,857
$1,000,000
$1,708,571
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1961
Between 1925 and 1961, food rose the most, up 84.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 75.3%, against 70.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1961, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.50%
$171
Food
1.71%
$184
Apparel
1.57%
$175
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 1961
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 1925–1961 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
1950–1960
2.08%
22.8%
$169
1960–1961
1.01%
1.0%
$171
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $98.86 by
1943, on its way to $171 in 1961; 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: 1961
In 1961, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $171; the year's average CPI of 29.9 is the level
behind every 1961 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1961, down from 1960’s 1.7% as
the economy climbed out of recession, a recovery the National Bureau of
Economic Research dates to that February. Politically, the year opened
with a changing of the guard: outgoing president Dwight Eisenhower’s
farewell address on January 17 warned of a growing “military-industrial
complex,” and three days later John F. Kennedy was sworn in, urging
Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you.” The new
administration’s first major foreign-policy test came quickly and badly:
a CIA-organized force of Cuban exiles landed at the Bay of Pigs on April
17 aiming to topple Fidel Castro, and without the U.S. air support Kennedy
withheld, the invasion collapsed within three days. Cold War tensions
hardened further that August, when East German forces sealed the border
between East and West Berlin overnight, building what would become the
Berlin Wall and stopping the flow of refugees to the West. Domestically,
the wage floor moved for the first time in five years: the Fair Labor
Standards Amendments of 1961, effective that September, raised the
minimum wage to $1.15 an hour and extended coverage to roughly 3.6 million
additional workers. Consumer prices finished 1961 202.0% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1961: $100 is worth $171 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1961/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1961. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1961/