$100 in 1925 is worth $173 in 1962,
because prices increased 72.6% over that period, an average of
1.49% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$173
in 1962
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
72.6%
Average inflation rate
1.49% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$173
Price difference ($100 base)
$72.57
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1962
30.2
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1962
1.00%
$100 in 1925 → 1962
$173
$100 in 1962 → 1925
$57.95
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1962
Between 1925 and 1962, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 30.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 72.6%, which works out to an average of
1.49% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.58 buys in 1962: the 1925 dollar
lost 42.1% of its purchasing power over
these 37 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 1962 at the same ratio, 1.73: $1,000 becomes
$1,726, and $10,000 becomes $17,257.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1962
$1.00
$1.73
$5.00
$8.63
$10.00
$17.26
$20.00
$34.51
$50.00
$86.29
$100
$173
$500
$863
$1,000
$1,726
$5,000
$8,629
$10,000
$17,257
$100,000
$172,571
$1,000,000
$1,725,714
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1962
Between 1925 and 1962, food rose the most, up 85.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 76.0%, against 72.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1962, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.49%
$173
Food
1.68%
$185
Apparel
1.54%
$176
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 1962
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 1925–1962 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
1960–1962
1.01%
2.0%
$173
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 $173 in 1962; 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: 1962
In 1962, prices rose 1.0% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $173; the year's average CPI of 30.2 is the level
behind every 1962 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.0% in 1962, matching 1961’s pace as
inflation stayed remarkably low and unemployment slowly declined from its
recession-era highs. That January, Kennedy’s Council of Economic Advisers
introduced “wage-price guideposts,” non-binding targets meant to keep pay
and price increases in line with productivity growth without formal
controls. The space race delivered a milestone that February, when John
Glenn’s Friendship 7 capsule circled Earth three times, making him the
first American to orbit the planet. Markets got a scare that spring: a
dispute over U.S. Steel’s April price increase, which Kennedy publicly
pressured the company into rolling back, rattled investors, and the Dow
Jones Industrial Average fell about 5.7% on May 28, its steepest one-day
drop since the 1929 crash. The year’s gravest moment came that October,
when American reconnaissance photographed Soviet nuclear missiles in
Cuba, setting off a 13-day standoff that brought the two superpowers
closer to nuclear war than at any other point in the Cold War before the
Soviet Union agreed to remove the missiles in exchange for a U.S. pledge
not to invade the island. Consumer prices finished 1962 205.1% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 4 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.15 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1962: $100 is worth $173 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1962/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1962. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1962/