$100 in 1925 is worth $1,479 in 2020,
because prices increased 1378.9% over that period, an average of
2.88% a year.
$100 in 1925 has
the same buying power as
$1,479
in 2020
Detailed inflation statistics
Cumulative price change
1378.9%
Average inflation rate
2.88% per year
Converted amount ($100 base)
$1,479
Price difference ($100 base)
$1,379
CPI in 1925
17.5
CPI in 2020
258.811
Inflation in 1925
2.34%
Inflation in 2020
1.23%
$100 in 1925 → 2020
$1,479
$100 in 2020 → 1925
$6.76
What happened to prices between 1925 and 2020
Between 1925 and 2020, the Consumer Price Index went from 17.5 to 258.811.
Cumulatively, prices increased 1378.9%, which works out to an average of
2.88% per year. Put differently, a dollar in 1925 bought what
$0.07 buys in 2020: the 1925 dollar
lost 93.2% of its purchasing power over
these 95 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 2020 at the same ratio, 14.79: $1,000 becomes
$14,789, and $10,000 becomes $147,892.
Amount in 1925
Value in 2020
$1.00
$14.79
$5.00
$73.95
$10.00
$148
$20.00
$296
$50.00
$739
$100
$1,479
$500
$7,395
$1,000
$14,789
$5,000
$73,946
$10,000
$147,892
$100,000
$1,478,920
$1,000,000
$14,789,200
Inflation by spending category, 1925–2020
Between 1925 and 2020, food rose the most, up 1519.5%, while apparel rose the least, up 349.0%, against 1378.9% for all items. The headline number is an average; here is what $100 of 1925
spending costs in 2020, by category:
Category
Avg. yearly inflation
$100 in 1925 →
All items (CPI-U)
2.88%
$1,479
Food
2.97%
$1,620
Apparel
1.59%
$449
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 2020
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 1925–2020 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
2000–2010
2.39%
26.6%
$1,246
2010–2020
1.73%
18.7%
$1,479
Year by year: CPI and the value of $100 from 1925
$100 from 1925 had already become $222 by
1970, on its way to $1,479 in 2020; 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: 2020
In 2020, prices rose 1.2% and $100 from 1925 had the buying
power of $1,479; the year's average CPI of 258.811 is the level
behind every 2020 figure on this page.
2020 was the year the pandemic rewired the price data without triggering the
inflation spike that followed it. Consumer prices rose just 1.2% for the
year, the mildest pace since 2015, as COVID-19 lockdowns emptied roads,
closed airports, and crushed energy demand. Oil told the starkest story: on
April 20, U.S. crude futures fell to about negative $37 a barrel, the first
negative settlement in the market’s history, as storage capacity ran out and no one
wanted the physical barrels. Gasoline followed it down, falling to about
$1.80 a gallon nationally that month before recovering to average $2.17 for
the year. Grocery prices moved the other way: pantry stocking and
meatpacking-plant disruptions pushed food-at-home costs up faster than
usual, a rare case of food and energy pulling the index in opposite
directions. Washington answered with the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, signed
March 27, which sent $1,200 payments to most adults and added $600 a week
to unemployment benefits as states ordered widespread business closures.
The Federal Reserve cut its policy rate to near zero in two emergency moves
that same month and pledged to buy Treasury and mortgage bonds “in the
amounts needed” to keep credit markets working, an open-ended commitment
beyond even its 2008 response. None of it showed up in the CPI yet: the
stimulus, the supply shocks, and the reopening whiplash that followed would
build into the fastest inflation in four decades over the next two years.
MLA: “Inflation from 1925 to 2020: $100 is worth $1,479 today.” InflationCalculator.com, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data, https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2020/
APA: InflationCalculator.com. Inflation from 1925 to 2020. Based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI-U data. Retrieved from https://inflationcalculator.com/inflation/1925-to-2020/