$100 in 1925 is worth $952 in 1999,
because prices increased 852.0% over that period, an average of
3.09% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$952
in 1999
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
852.0%
Average inflation rate
3.09% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$952
Price difference ($100 base)
$852
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 1999
166.6
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 1999
2.21%
$100 in 1925 → 1999
$952
$100 in 1999 → 1925
$10.50
What happened to prices between 1925 and 1999
Between 1925 and 1999, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 166.6.
Cumulatively, prices increased 852.0%, which works out to an average of
3.09% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.11 buys in 1999: the 1925 dollar
lost 89.5% of its purchasing power over
these 74 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 1999 at the same ratio, 9.52: $1,000 becomes
$9,520, and $10,000 becomes $95,200.
Amount in 1925
Value in 1999
$1.00
$9.52
$5.00
$47.60
$10.00
$95.20
$20.00
$190
$50.00
$476
$100
$952
$500
$4,760
$1,000
$9,520
$5,000
$47,600
$10,000
$95,200
$100,000
$952,000
$1,000,000
$9,520,000
Inflation by spending category, 1925–1999
Between 1925 and 1999, food rose the most, up 894.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 399.2%, against 852.0% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 1999, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.09%
$952
Food
3.15%
$995
Apparel
2.20%
$499
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 1999
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 1925–1999 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
1990–1999
2.73%
27.5%
$952
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $169 by
1960, on its way to $952 in 1999; 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: 1999
In 1999, prices rose 2.2% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $952; the year's average CPI of 166.6 is the level
behind every 1999 figure on this page.
The median household earned about $40,700 in 1999, gas averaged $1.17 a gallon, and a new home
cost roughly $161,000. Inflation ran at 2.2% for the year, ticking back up from 1998’s decade low
as oil prices recovered from their collapse. The decade closed with two changes to the financial
system that would shape the one after it: on January 1, the euro launched as an accounting
currency across 11 European countries, trading alongside national currencies like the French
franc and German mark ahead of physical cash in 2002, and in November, Congress passed the
Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, tearing down the Depression-era wall between commercial banks, investment
banks, and insurers. Stock markets, meanwhile, were absorbed in a boom of their own: the Nasdaq
surged through the year on soaring internet-stock valuations, and the Federal Reserve raised
interest rates three times in the second half of 1999 partly to cool the exuberance, even as it
pumped extra liquidity into the banking system to guard against any disruption from the Y2K
rollover. A first-class stamp cost 33 cents. Inflation had spent the decade falling from 1990’s
5.4% peak to averages closer to 2-3%, and 1999 closed it out almost exactly where the 1990s as a
whole had settled.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 1999: $100 is worth $952 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1999/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 1999. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-1999/