$100 in 1925 is worth $871 in 1995,
because prices increased 770.9% over that period, an average of
3.14% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$871
in 1995
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
770.9%
Average inflation rate
3.14% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$871
Price difference ($100 base)
$771
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1995
152.4
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1995
2.83%
$100 in 1925 → 1995
$871
$100 in 1995 → 1925
$11.48
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1995
Between 1925 and 1995, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 152.4.
Cumulatively, prices increased 770.9%, which works out to an average of
3.14% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1995: the 1925 dollar
lost 88.5% of its purchasing power over
these 70 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 1995 at the same ratio, 8.71: $1,000 becomes
$8,709, and $10,000 becomes $87,086.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1995
$1.00
$8.71
$5.00
$43.54
$10.00
$87.09
$20.00
$174
$50.00
$435
$100
$871
$500
$4,354
$1,000
$8,709
$5,000
$43,543
$10,000
$87,086
$100,000
$870,857
$1,000,000
$8,708,571
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1995
Between 1925 and 1995, food rose the most, up 799.4%, while apparel rose the least, up 401.9%, against 770.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1995, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.14%
$871
Food
3.19%
$899
Apparel
2.33%
$502
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 1995
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 1925–1995 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
1990–1995
3.12%
16.6%
$871
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $169 by
1960, on its way to $871 in 1995; 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: 1995
In 1995, prices rose 2.8% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $871; the year's average CPI of 152.4 is the level
behind every 1995 figure on this page.
In 1995, gas averaged $1.15 a gallon, a new home cost roughly $133,900, and the median household
earned about $34,100. Inflation ran at 2.8% for the year, little changed from 1994, as the
Federal Reserve shifted from raising rates to cutting them. Having lifted its policy rate six
times the year before, the Fed judged by July that the economy had cooled enough on its own, and
trimmed rates instead, an outcome economists would later point to as a rare soft landing. The
year opened with a currency crisis: Mexico’s peso lost roughly half its value against the dollar
in a matter of weeks, and the U.S. Treasury and the IMF assembled a $50 billion rescue package,
controversial in Congress, to stabilize it and keep the crisis from spreading to other emerging
markets. Closer to home, a budget standoff between President Clinton and the Republican Congress
shut down federal agencies twice, first for five days in November and then for 21 days spanning
December into January 1996, the longest shutdown up to that point. The Postal Service raised the
cost of a first-class stamp to 32 cents in January. Low, steady inflation was about the only calm
part of 1995’s economic story.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1995: $100 is worth $871 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1995/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1995. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1995/