$100 in 1925 is worth $519 in 1981,
because prices increased 419.4% over that period, an average of
2.99% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$519
in 1981
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
419.4%
Average inflation rate
2.99% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$519
Price difference ($100 base)
$419
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1981
90.9
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1981
10.32%
$100 in 1925 → 1981
$519
$100 in 1981 → 1925
$19.25
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1981
Between 1925 and 1981, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 90.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 419.4%, which works out to an average of
2.99% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.19 buys in 1981: the 1925 dollar
lost 80.7% of its purchasing power over
these 56 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 1981 at the same ratio, 5.19: $1,000 becomes
$5,194, and $10,000 becomes $51,943.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1981
$1.00
$5.19
$5.00
$25.97
$10.00
$51.94
$20.00
$104
$50.00
$260
$100
$519
$500
$2,597
$1,000
$5,194
$5,000
$25,971
$10,000
$51,943
$100,000
$519,429
$1,000,000
$5,194,286
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1981
Between 1925 and 1981, food rose the most, up 467.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 262.4%, against 419.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1981, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.99%
$519
Food
3.15%
$567
Apparel
2.33%
$362
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 1981
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 10.32% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1981 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
1970–1980
7.82%
112.4%
$471
1980–1981
10.32%
10.3%
$519
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $153 by
1953, on its way to $519 in 1981; 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: 1981
In 1981, prices rose 10.3% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $519; the year's average CPI of 90.9 is the level
behind every 1981 figure on this page.
1981 was the year the inflation fever finally broke, at an extraordinary price.
Consumer prices rose 10.3%, the second year of back-to-back double-digit
inflation and the last time the U.S. would see one. To end it, Paul Volcker’s
Federal Reserve drove its policy rate above 19% and let borrowing costs go
where they may: a 30-year mortgage cost more than 18% by autumn, car loans and
business credit froze, and homebuilders mailed the Fed two-by-fours in protest.
The squeeze tipped the economy into recession in July, the deep 1981–82
downturn that would push unemployment past 10%. But it worked. Inflation fell
by nearly half within a year and to under 4% by 1983, the disinflation that
defined the following two decades. Even the price of mailing a letter told the
year’s story: postage went up twice in eight months.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1981: $100 is worth $519 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1981/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1981. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1981/