$100 in 1925 is worth $1,226 in 2009,
because prices increased 1125.9% over that period, an average of
3.03% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$1,226
in 2009
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1125.9%
Average inflation rate
3.03% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,226
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,126
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 2009
214.537
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 2009
-0.36%
$100 in 1925 → 2009
$1,226
$100 in 2009 → 1925
$8.16
What happened to prices between 1925 and 2009
Between 1925 and 2009, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 214.537.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1125.9%, which works out to an average of
3.03% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.08 buys in 2009: the 1925 dollar
lost 91.8% of its purchasing power over
these 84 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 2009 at the same ratio, 12.26: $1,000 becomes
$12,259, and $10,000 becomes $122,593.
Amount in 1925
Value in 2009
$1.00
$12.26
$5.00
$61.30
$10.00
$123
$20.00
$245
$50.00
$613
$100
$1,226
$500
$6,130
$1,000
$12,259
$5,000
$61,296
$10,000
$122,593
$100,000
$1,225,926
$1,000,000
$12,259,257
Inflation by spending category, 1925–2009
Between 1925 and 2009, food rose the most, up 1220.9%, while apparel rose the least, up 356.6%, against 1125.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 2009, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
3.03%
$1,226
Food
3.12%
$1,321
Apparel
1.82%
$457
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 2009
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 1925–2009 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
2000–2009
2.47%
24.6%
$1,226
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $180 by
1965, on its way to $1,226 in 2009; 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: 2009
In 2009, prices fell 0.4% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $1,226; the year's average CPI of 214.537 is the level
behind every 2009 figure on this page.
2009 is the rarest kind of year in the modern price data: one where the cost
of living went down. The CPI fell 0.4%, the first full-year deflation
since 1955, as the Great Recession hollowed out demand and oil unwound from
its $147 spike the summer before. Gasoline that had cost over $4 a gallon in
July 2008 averaged $2.35 in 2009, and that energy collapse dragged the
12-month inflation rate to −2.1% by July, the deepest reading since 1950.
Policymakers treated falling prices not as relief but as a warning: deflation
raises the real weight of debt precisely when households are drowning in it,
which is why the Federal Reserve pinned interest rates near zero, began buying
bonds by the hundreds of billions, and Washington passed a $787 billion
stimulus. The medicine took: prices stabilized within a year, and 2009 remains
the textbook case of why central banks fear deflation more than moderate
inflation.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 2009: $100 is worth $1,226 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2009/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 2009. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2009/