$100 in 1925 is worth $709 in 1989,
because prices increased 608.6% over that period, an average of
3.11% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$709
in 1989
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
608.6%
Average inflation rate
3.11% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$709
Price difference ($100 base)
$609
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1989
124
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1989
4.82%
$100 in 1925 → 1989
$709
$100 in 1989 → 1925
$14.11
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1989
Between 1925 and 1989, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 124.
Cumulatively, prices increased 608.6%, which works out to an average of
3.11% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.14 buys in 1989: the 1925 dollar
lost 85.9% of its purchasing power over
these 64 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 1989 at the same ratio, 7.09: $1,000 becomes
$7,086, and $10,000 becomes $70,857.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1989
$1.00
$7.09
$5.00
$35.43
$10.00
$70.86
$20.00
$142
$50.00
$354
$100
$709
$500
$3,543
$1,000
$7,086
$5,000
$35,429
$10,000
$70,857
$100,000
$708,571
$1,000,000
$7,085,714
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1989
Between 1925 and 1989, food rose the most, up 658.2%, while apparel rose the least, up 351.0%, against 608.6% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1989, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.11%
$709
Food
3.22%
$758
Apparel
2.38%
$451
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 1989
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 1925–1989 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
1980–1989
4.65%
50.5%
$709
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $153 by
1955, on its way to $709 in 1989; 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 5 years; the calculator above covers any pair of years.
The destination year: 1989
In 1989, prices rose 4.8% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $709; the year's average CPI of 124 is the level
behind every 1989 figure on this page.
1989 closed out a decade that began in economic crisis and ended in a long,
calmer expansion. Inflation for the year came in at 4.8%, higher than the
mid-decade lull but still roughly a third of the 13.5% peak that had opened
the decade in 1980. The federal minimum wage, unchanged at $3.35 an hour
since January 1981, had gone longer without an increase than at any point
since Congress created it, and had lost close to a third of its purchasing
power to inflation in the meantime; lawmakers would finally raise it to
$3.80 the following April. The decade’s other unfinished business came due
in August, when Congress passed FIRREA, the law that created the Resolution
Trust Corporation to seize and sell off the hundreds of savings and loan
institutions that a decade of deregulation and risky lending had left
insolvent, a bailout that eventually cost taxpayers over $100 billion. On
Wall Street, the recovery was already complete: the Dow Jones Industrial
Average closed 1989 at a record high, just over two years after Black
Monday’s 22.6% single-day crash, capping the bull market that had begun at
the Dow’s 776 low in August 1982. Between the S&L bailout, a wage floor
eroded by years without a raise, and a stock market at new highs, 1989
captured how unevenly the decade’s disinflation had been felt.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1989: $100 is worth $709 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1989/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1989. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1989/