$100 in 1925 is worth $1,079 in 2004,
because prices increased 979.4% over that period, an average of
3.06% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$1,079
in 2004
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
979.4%
Average inflation rate
3.06% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,079
Price difference ($100 base)
$979
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 2004
188.9
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 2004
2.66%
$100 in 1925 → 2004
$1,079
$100 in 2004 → 1925
$9.26
What happened to prices between 1925 and 2004
Between 1925 and 2004, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 188.9.
Cumulatively, prices increased 979.4%, which works out to an average of
3.06% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.09 buys in 2004: the 1925 dollar
lost 90.7% of its purchasing power over
these 79 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 2004 at the same ratio, 10.79: $1,000 becomes
$10,794, and $10,000 becomes $107,943.
Amount in 1925
Value in 2004
$1.00
$10.79
$5.00
$53.97
$10.00
$108
$20.00
$216
$50.00
$540
$100
$1,079
$500
$5,397
$1,000
$10,794
$5,000
$53,971
$10,000
$107,943
$100,000
$1,079,429
$1,000,000
$10,794,286
Inflation by spending category, 1925–2004
Between 1925 and 2004, food rose the most, up 1028.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 357.8%, against 979.4% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 2004, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.06%
$1,079
Food
3.12%
$1,128
Apparel
1.94%
$458
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 2004
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 1925–2004 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
2000–2004
2.34%
9.7%
$1,079
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $180 by
1965, on its way to $1,079 in 2004; 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: 2004
In 2004, prices rose 2.7% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $1,079; the year's average CPI of 188.9 is the level
behind every 2004 figure on this page.
Consumer prices rose 2.7% in 2004, with a 29-cent jump in the price of gasoline, to $1.88 a
gallon, doing much of the work. Crude oil passed $50 a barrel in October on rising demand
from China and India. The Federal Reserve raised rates for the first time in four years on
June 30, to 1.25%, and it kept going: 17 consecutive quarter-point increases took the rate to
5.25% by June 2006. Housing was already running ahead of incomes. The median household earned
about $44,300, up 2.3% from 2003, while the median new home sold for $221,000, up about 13%. A
first-class stamp stayed at 37 cents and the federal minimum wage at $5.15, unchanged since
1997.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 2004: $100 is worth $1,079 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2004/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 2004. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2004/