$100 in 1925 is worth $826 in 1993,
because prices increased 725.7% over that period, an average of
3.15% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$826
in 1993
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
725.7%
Average inflation rate
3.15% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$826
Price difference ($100 base)
$726
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1993
144.5
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1993
2.99%
$100 in 1925 → 1993
$826
$100 in 1993 → 1925
$12.11
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1993
Between 1925 and 1993, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 144.5.
Cumulatively, prices increased 725.7%, which works out to an average of
3.15% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.12 buys in 1993: the 1925 dollar
lost 87.9% of its purchasing power over
these 68 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 1993 at the same ratio, 8.26: $1,000 becomes
$8,257, and $10,000 becomes $82,571.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1993
$1.00
$8.26
$5.00
$41.29
$10.00
$82.57
$20.00
$165
$50.00
$413
$100
$826
$500
$4,129
$1,000
$8,257
$5,000
$41,286
$10,000
$82,571
$100,000
$825,714
$1,000,000
$8,257,143
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1993
Between 1925 and 1993, food rose the most, up 753.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 408.4%, against 725.7% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1993, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.15%
$826
Food
3.20%
$854
Apparel
2.42%
$508
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 1993
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 1925–1993 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
1980–1990
4.72%
58.6%
$747
1990–1993
3.40%
10.6%
$826
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $169 by
1960, on its way to $826 in 1993; 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: 1993
In 1993, prices rose 3.0% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $826; the year's average CPI of 144.5 is the level
behind every 1993 figure on this page.
By 1993, the median household earned about $31,200, gas averaged $1.11 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $126,500. Inflation ran at 3.0% for the year, holding close to where it had settled
the year before as the recovery slowly gathered strength. Washington spent much of the year on
two pieces of unfinished business from the recession: a deficit-reduction package, the Omnibus
Budget Reconciliation Act, that raised the top income tax rate to 39.6% to start narrowing a
budget gap left over from the 1980s, and a trade deal, the North American Free Trade Agreement,
that President Clinton signed into law in December after a contentious fight in Congress. NAFTA
phased out most tariffs between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and took effect the following
January. The year’s other defining event had nothing to do with the economy: in February, a bomb
exploded in the World Trade Center’s parking garage, killing six people and injuring more than a
thousand. By year’s end, the pieces of the decade’s later economic story, freer trade, a
shrinking deficit, and inflation holding near 3%, were already in place.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1993: $100 is worth $826 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1993/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1993. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1993/