$100 in 1925 is worth $373 in 1978,
because prices increased 272.6% over that period, an average of
2.51% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$373
in 1978
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
272.6%
Average inflation rate
2.51% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$373
Price difference ($100 base)
$273
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1978
65.2
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1978
7.59%
$100 in 1925 → 1978
$373
$100 in 1978 → 1925
$26.84
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1978
Between 1925 and 1978, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 65.2.
Cumulatively, prices increased 272.6%, which works out to an average of
2.51% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.27 buys in 1978: the 1925 dollar
lost 73.2% of its purchasing power over
these 53 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 1978 at the same ratio, 3.73: $1,000 becomes
$3,726, and $10,000 becomes $37,257.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1978
$1.00
$3.73
$5.00
$18.63
$10.00
$37.26
$20.00
$74.51
$50.00
$186
$100
$373
$500
$1,863
$1,000
$3,726
$5,000
$18,629
$10,000
$37,257
$100,000
$372,571
$1,000,000
$3,725,714
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1978
Between 1925 and 1978, food rose the most, up 336.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 209.5%, against 272.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1978, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.51%
$373
Food
2.82%
$436
Apparel
2.15%
$310
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 1978
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 6.70% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1978 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
1970–1978
6.70%
68.0%
$373
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $149 by
1951, on its way to $373 in 1978; 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: 1978
In 1978, prices rose 7.6% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $373; the year's average CPI of 65.2 is the level
behind every 1978 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 7.6% in 1978, accelerating for a second straight year as
rising wages, a weakening dollar, and climbing energy costs outpaced the
Federal Reserve’s response. Fed chairman G. William Miller, appointed by
Carter that March, kept interest rates too low to slow the trend, a policy
later cited as one reason inflation kept building toward the following year’s
crisis. California voters responded to their own version of the problem that
June, passing Proposition 13 by nearly two to one to cap property tax rates
after years of rising home values had pushed tax bills up alongside them.
Foreign policy delivered one of the decade’s genuine breakthroughs: President
Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin together for thirteen days of negotiations at Camp David that
September, producing a framework for peace between the two countries that was
signed as a treaty the following March. First-class postage rose to 15 cents
that May 29, a rate that would hold longer than any other in the decade. The
year ended in tragedy: cult leader Jim Jones directed the mass murder-suicide
of more than 900 followers at a remote settlement in Guyana that November 18.
A median household earned $15,064 in 1978, a new home sold for a median
$55,700, and gas averaged 63 cents a gallon. Consumer prices stood 558.6%
above their 1913 level, with the decade’s worst inflation
still to come.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1978: $100 is worth $373 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1978/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1978. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1978/