$100 in 1925 is worth $199 in 1968,
because prices increased 98.9% over that period, an average of
1.61% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$199
in 1968
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
98.9%
Average inflation rate
1.61% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$199
Price difference ($100 base)
$98.86
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1968
34.8
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1968
4.19%
$100 in 1925 → 1968
$199
$100 in 1968 → 1925
$50.29
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1968
Between 1925 and 1968, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 34.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 98.9%, which works out to an average of
1.61% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.50 buys in 1968: the 1925 dollar
lost 49.7% of its purchasing power over
these 43 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 1968 at the same ratio, 1.99: $1,000 becomes
$1,989, and $10,000 becomes $19,886.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1968
$1.00
$1.99
$5.00
$9.94
$10.00
$19.89
$20.00
$39.77
$50.00
$99.43
$100
$199
$500
$994
$1,000
$1,989
$5,000
$9,943
$10,000
$19,886
$100,000
$198,857
$1,000,000
$1,988,571
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1968
Between 1925 and 1968, food rose the most, up 113.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 104.2%, against 98.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1968, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.61%
$199
Food
1.78%
$214
Apparel
1.67%
$204
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 1968
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 1925–1968 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
1960–1968
2.04%
17.6%
$199
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $127 by
1947, on its way to $199 in 1968; 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: 1968
In 1968, prices rose 4.2% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $199; the year's average CPI of 34.8 is the level
behind every 1968 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 4.2% in 1968, up sharply from 1967’s
3.1% and the fastest pace in 17 years, as Vietnam War spending and a tight
labor market pushed inflation higher despite the Federal Reserve’s
earlier tightening. The year was marked by political violence: Martin
Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony in Memphis on April
4, touching off rioting in more than 100 cities, and Robert F. Kennedy was
shot in Los Angeles on June 5, moments after winning California’s
Democratic presidential primary, and died the next day. Washington tried
to answer the inflation problem directly that June 28, when Congress
passed a 10% income tax surcharge, the Revenue and Expenditure Control
Act, temporarily raising taxes and cutting spending to cool an economy
overheated by war and Great Society outlays; prices kept accelerating
anyway. The cost of living rose in smaller, more visible ways too:
first-class postage climbed to 6 cents that January 7, and the minimum
wage rose to $1.60 an hour that February 1, the final step of the
increase Congress had set two years earlier. Consumer prices finished
1968 251.5% above their 1913 level.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1968: $100 is worth $199 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1968/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1968. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1968/