$100 in 1925 is worth $594 in 1984,
because prices increased 493.7% over that period, an average of
3.07% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$594
in 1984
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
493.7%
Average inflation rate
3.07% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$594
Price difference ($100 base)
$494
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1984
103.9
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1984
4.32%
$100 in 1925 → 1984
$594
$100 in 1984 → 1925
$16.84
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1984
Between 1925 and 1984, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 103.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 493.7%, which works out to an average of
3.07% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.17 buys in 1984: the 1925 dollar
lost 83.2% of its purchasing power over
these 59 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 1984 at the same ratio, 5.94: $1,000 becomes
$5,937, and $10,000 becomes $59,371.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1984
$1.00
$5.94
$5.00
$29.69
$10.00
$59.37
$20.00
$119
$50.00
$297
$100
$594
$500
$2,969
$1,000
$5,937
$5,000
$29,686
$10,000
$59,371
$100,000
$593,714
$1,000,000
$5,937,143
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1984
Between 1925 and 1984, food rose the most, up 525.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 288.2%, against 493.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1984, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.07%
$594
Food
3.16%
$625
Apparel
2.33%
$388
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 1984
Prices climbed fastest in the 1970s, averaging 7.82% a year, and fell in the 1930s (1.7% a year). Each step below chains into the full 1925–1984 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
1980–1984
5.97%
26.1%
$594
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $153 by
1955, on its way to $594 in 1984; 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: 1984
In 1984, prices rose 4.3% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $594; the year's average CPI of 103.9 is the level
behind every 1984 figure on this page.
1984 was the year the recovery became a boom. Real GDP grew 7.2%, the
fastest calendar-year growth since 1951, as the tax cuts passed in 1981
combined with falling interest rates and rebuilding consumer confidence.
Unemployment, which had topped 10.8% just two years earlier, fell below
7.5%. Inflation ticked up to 4.3% from 3.2% the year before, but nothing
close to a return of the 1970s wage-price spiral: the Federal Reserve under
Paul Volcker kept policy tight enough to hold the line while growth ran hot.
The strength of the expansion, branded “Morning in America” in President
Reagan’s reelection campaign, carried him to a 49-state landslide over
Walter Mondale that November, at the time the widest electoral-vote margin
in U.S. history. For households, the numbers behind the slogan were
concrete: median income rose to about $22,400, and a gallon of gas cost
$1.13, roughly what it had cost three years earlier even as wages kept
climbing. The contrast with 1980, when 13.5% inflation and interest rates
near 20% had defined the economy, could not have been sharper.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1984: $100 is worth $594 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1984/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1984. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1984/