$100 in 1925 is worth $239 in 1972,
because prices increased 138.9% over that period, an average of
1.87% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$239
in 1972
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
138.9%
Average inflation rate
1.87% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$239
Price difference ($100 base)
$139
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1972
41.8
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1972
3.21%
$100 in 1925 → 1972
$239
$100 in 1972 → 1925
$41.87
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1972
Between 1925 and 1972, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 41.8.
Cumulatively, prices increased 138.9%, which works out to an average of
1.87% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.42 buys in 1972: the 1925 dollar
lost 58.1% of its purchasing power over
these 47 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 1972 at the same ratio, 2.39: $1,000 becomes
$2,389, and $10,000 becomes $23,886.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1972
$1.00
$2.39
$5.00
$11.94
$10.00
$23.89
$20.00
$47.77
$50.00
$119
$100
$239
$500
$1,194
$1,000
$2,389
$5,000
$11,943
$10,000
$23,886
$100,000
$238,857
$1,000,000
$2,388,571
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1972
Between 1925 and 1972, food rose the most, up 155.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 136.9%, against 138.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1972, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
1.87%
$239
Food
2.01%
$255
Apparel
1.85%
$237
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 1972
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 1925–1972 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
1960–1970
2.74%
31.1%
$222
1970–1972
3.79%
7.7%
$239
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $136 by
1949, on its way to $239 in 1972; 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: 1972
In 1972, prices rose 3.2% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $239; the year's average CPI of 41.8 is the level
behind every 1972 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose just 3.2% in 1972, the calmest year of the decade and a
sharp break from the previous two years. The relief was largely engineered:
Nixon’s wage and price controls, imposed as a 90-day freeze in August 1971,
had settled into a series of “phases” that capped how much businesses could
raise prices through the election year. Economists would later argue the
controls mostly deferred inflation rather than curing it, storing up pressure
that broke loose once they were lifted. Nixon spent political capital on
foreign policy that year, traveling to Beijing that February in the first
visit by a sitting U.S. president to the People’s Republic of China, a trip
that began normalizing relations Washington had frozen since 1949. Closer to
home, five men were arrested breaking into the Democratic National
Committee’s offices at the Watergate complex that June 17, an event that drew
little attention at the time but would eventually force Nixon from office.
None of it dented his re-election bid: Nixon carried 49 states against
Democrat George McGovern that November, helped by an economy that, on paper,
looked more stable than it had in years. A median household earned $9,697 in
1972, a new home sold for a median $27,600, and gas held near 36 cents a
gallon for a third straight year. Consumer prices stood 322.2% above their
1913 level, a lull that would not survive contact with the
controls’ expiration and the oil shock still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1972: $100 is worth $239 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1972/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1972. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1972/