$100 in 1925 is worth $1,051 in 2003,
because prices increased 951.4% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$1,051
in 2003
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
951.4%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,051
Price difference ($100 base)
$951
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 2003
184
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 2003
2.28%
$100 in 1925 → 2003
$1,051
$100 in 2003 → 1925
$9.51
What happened to prices between 1925 and 2003
Between 1925 and 2003, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 184.
Cumulatively, prices increased 951.4%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.10 buys in 2003: the 1925 dollar
lost 90.5% of its purchasing power over
these 78 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 2003 at the same ratio, 10.51: $1,000 becomes
$10,514, and $10,000 becomes $105,143.
Amount in 1925
Value in 2003
$1.00
$10.51
$5.00
$52.57
$10.00
$105
$20.00
$210
$50.00
$526
$100
$1,051
$500
$5,257
$1,000
$10,514
$5,000
$52,571
$10,000
$105,143
$100,000
$1,051,429
$1,000,000
$10,514,286
Inflation by spending category, 1925–2003
Between 1925 and 2003, food rose the most, up 990.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 359.7%, against 951.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 2003, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$1,051
Food
3.11%
$1,091
Apparel
1.97%
$460
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 2003
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 1925–2003 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
1990–2000
2.80%
31.8%
$984
2000–2003
2.23%
6.9%
$1,051
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $180 by
1965, on its way to $1,051 in 2003; 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: 2003
In 2003, prices rose 2.3% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $1,051; the year's average CPI of 184 is the level
behind every 2003 figure on this page.
Inflation was 2.3% in 2003, up from 1.6% in 2002, as gasoline climbed from $1.36 to $1.59 a
gallon around the March invasion of Iraq. Even so, the Federal Reserve spent the year worried
about prices being too low: on June 25 it cut its policy rate to 1.0%, the lowest since 1958,
and said the risk of deflation, though small, deserved a response. The median household earned
about $43,300 and a new home cost roughly $195,000. Congress passed a second round of tax cuts
in May, and the economy grew faster in the second half of the year than at any point since
1999. Hiring lagged the recovery, and unemployment peaked at 6.3% in June. A first-class stamp
stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 2003: $100 is worth $1,051 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2003/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 2003. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2003/