$100 in 1925 is worth $551 in 1982,
because prices increased 451.4% over that period, an average of
3.04% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$551
in 1982
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
451.4%
Average inflation rate
3.04% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$551
Price difference ($100 base)
$451
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1982
96.5
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1982
6.16%
$100 in 1925 → 1982
$551
$100 in 1982 → 1925
$18.13
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1982
Between 1925 and 1982, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 96.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 451.4%, which works out to an average of
3.04% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.18 buys in 1982: the 1925 dollar
lost 81.9% of its purchasing power over
these 57 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 1982 at the same ratio, 5.51: $1,000 becomes
$5,514, and $10,000 becomes $55,143.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1982
$1.00
$5.51
$5.00
$27.57
$10.00
$55.14
$20.00
$110
$50.00
$276
$100
$551
$500
$2,757
$1,000
$5,514
$5,000
$27,571
$10,000
$55,143
$100,000
$551,429
$1,000,000
$5,514,286
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1982
Between 1925 and 1982, food rose the most, up 490.3%, while apparel rose the least, up 271.9%, against 451.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1982, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.04%
$551
Food
3.16%
$590
Apparel
2.33%
$372
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 1982
Prices climbed fastest in the 1980s, averaging 8.22% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1982 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
1980–1982
8.22%
17.1%
$551
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $153 by
1953, on its way to $551 in 1982; 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: 1982
In 1982, prices rose 6.2% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $551; the year's average CPI of 96.5 is the level
behind every 1982 figure on this page.
1982 was the hard bottom of the disinflation Paul Volcker had set in motion.
Consumer prices rose just 6.2% for the year, roughly half of 1981’s rate and a
fraction of the 13.5% peak from two years earlier. The price fell because
demand had been crushed: the recession that began in July 1981 did not
officially end until November 1982, and unemployment kept climbing even as
the economy technically began to recover, reaching 10.8% in November and
December, the highest rate since the Great Depression. Manufacturing and
construction, especially the auto and housing industries starved of credit by
double-digit interest rates, bore the worst of it. Abroad, Mexico’s August
announcement that it could not service its foreign debt opened a Latin
American debt crisis that spread across the region and forced the Federal
Reserve and IMF into emergency lending. The stress on the financial system
pushed Volcker to start easing interest rates that October, stepping back
from the strict money-supply targets he had followed since 1979. Markets read
the shift correctly: the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed at 776.92 in
mid-August, and the rally that followed became the opening leg of the 1980s
bull market. By year’s end, the trade-off Volcker had bet on was becoming
visible: much lower inflation, at the cost of the worst unemployment in 40
years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1982: $100 is worth $551 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1982/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1982. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1982/