$100 in 1925 is worth $210 in 1969,
because prices increased 109.7% over that period, an average of
1.70% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$210
in 1969
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
109.7%
Average inflation rate
1.70% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$210
Price difference ($100 base)
$110
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1969
36.7
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1969
5.46%
$100 in 1925 → 1969
$210
$100 in 1969 → 1925
$47.68
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1969
Between 1925 and 1969, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 36.7.
Cumulatively, prices increased 109.7%, which works out to an average of
1.70% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.48 buys in 1969: the 1925 dollar
lost 52.3% of its purchasing power over
these 44 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 1969 at the same ratio, 2.10: $1,000 becomes
$2,097, and $10,000 becomes $20,971.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1969
$1.00
$2.10
$5.00
$10.49
$10.00
$20.97
$20.00
$41.94
$50.00
$105
$100
$210
$500
$1,049
$1,000
$2,097
$5,000
$10,486
$10,000
$20,971
$100,000
$209,714
$1,000,000
$2,097,143
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1969
Between 1925 and 1969, food rose the most, up 124.8%, while apparel rose the least, up 116.0%, against 109.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1969, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.70%
$210
Food
1.86%
$225
Apparel
1.77%
$216
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 1969
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 1925–1969 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
1960–1969
2.42%
24.0%
$210
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $127 by
1947, on its way to $210 in 1969; 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: 1969
In 1969, prices rose 5.5% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $210; the year's average CPI of 36.7 is the level
behind every 1969 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 5.5% in 1969, up from 1968’s 4.2% and
the fastest pace since the Korean War era, as years of Vietnam War
spending, a labor market with unemployment under 4%, and expansionary
fiscal policy finally showed up fully in prices. Richard Nixon was
inaugurated that January 20, pledging to curb rising prices without wage
and price controls, a position he would reverse within two years. The
decade’s most triumphant moment came that July 20, when Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin walked on the Moon while Michael Collins orbited above,
fulfilling the goal Kennedy had set in 1961 of landing a man on the lunar
surface before the decade’s end. Culture and protest both reached new
extremes that year: an estimated 400,000 people gathered on a dairy farm
in Bethel, New York, for the Woodstock music festival that August, and a
police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York’s Greenwich Village that
June touched off days of resistance now credited with launching the
modern gay rights movement. Consumer prices finished the decade 270.7%
above their 1913 level, up 24.0% from where they stood in
1960. The 1960s had opened with inflation near 1% a year and closed with
prices rising faster than at any point since Korea, setting up the Great
Inflation that would define the
1970s. First-class postage held at 6 cents, and the minimum wage stayed
at $1.60 an hour.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1969: $100 is worth $210 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1969/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1969. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1969/