$100 in 1925 is worth $180 in 1965,
because prices increased 80.0% over that period, an average of
1.48% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$180
in 1965
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
80.0%
Average inflation rate
1.48% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$180
Price difference ($100 base)
$80.00
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1965
31.5
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1965
1.61%
$100 in 1925 → 1965
$180
$100 in 1965 → 1925
$55.56
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1965
Between 1925 and 1965, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 31.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 80.0%, which works out to an average of
1.48% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.56 buys in 1965: the 1925 dollar
lost 44.4% of its purchasing power over
these 40 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 1965 at the same ratio, 1.80: $1,000 becomes
$1,800, and $10,000 becomes $18,000.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1965
$1.00
$1.80
$5.00
$9.00
$10.00
$18.00
$20.00
$36.00
$50.00
$90.00
$100
$180
$500
$900
$1,000
$1,800
$5,000
$9,000
$10,000
$18,000
$100,000
$180,000
$1,000,000
$1,800,000
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1965
Between 1925 and 1965, food rose the most, up 95.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 81.7%, against 80.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1965, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.48%
$180
Food
1.69%
$195
Apparel
1.50%
$182
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 1965
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 1925–1965 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
1960–1965
1.25%
6.4%
$180
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $103 by
1945, on its way to $180 in 1965; 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: 1965
In 1965, prices rose 1.6% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $180; the year's average CPI of 31.5 is the level
behind every 1965 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 1.6% in 1965, up from 1964’s 1.3% in a
pickup that economists later mark as the start of the Great
Inflation, a run of accelerating
price increases driven by rising Vietnam War spending layered on top of
new Great Society programs. The war itself escalated on the ground that
March, when about 3,500 Marines came ashore at Da Nang, the first American
combat troops committed to Vietnam; troop levels would climb toward
200,000 by year’s end. Domestic policy expanded just as fast: Medicare and
Medicaid became law that July 30, creating federal health insurance for
older and low-income Americans, and the Voting Rights Act, signed that
August 6, banned literacy tests and other devices used to disenfranchise
Black voters. The civil rights movement’s gains coexisted with urban
unrest that same August, when a highway patrol traffic stop in the Watts
neighborhood of Los Angeles set off six days of rioting that left 34
people dead. Consumer prices finished 1965 218.2% above their
1913 level. First-class postage held at 5 cents, and the
minimum wage stayed at $1.25 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1965: $100 is worth $180 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1965/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1965. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1965/